UK reform leader Nigel Farage received around £5 million (around $6.7 million) from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne before announcing his candidacy for the Clacton seat in 2024, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
The Conservatives referred him to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, while Labor also accused him of breaching House of Commons rules.
Farage confirmed the gift in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, saying it was meant to keep him “safe and secure for the rest of my life” after a milkshake was thrown at him in 2019 and a firebomb attack on his home last year.
Harborne, a Thailand-based businessman with a 12% stake in stablecoin issuer Tether, made the payment in 2024. Farage announced his candidacy for Clacton in early June last year and won the seat in July.
A Reform UK spokesperson called the payment an “unconditional personal gift” given before Farage was elected and said his decision to stand as an MP was “unrelated”.
The spokesperson, the report adds, said: “We are sure that everything has been declared in accordance with the regulations.”
The House of Commons code of conduct requires new MPs to record benefits received in the 12 months before their election, and says any benefits must be recorded if in doubt. The reform says that the gift falls within the exemption for purely personal gifts.
The Conservative Party, the country’s main opposition party, wrote to Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg, asking him to examine whether any of the funds were used to support political activities rather than security. Labor chair Anna Turley said Farage “appears to have broken the rules again”.
UK Crypto Donations
Harborne gave Reform £9 million, then worth around $12 million, late last year in the largest donation to a UK political party by a recorded living person.
Earlier this month, BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo said in an op-ed that he had donated £4 million ($5.1 million) to Reform since the beginning of the year.
The UK government imposed an immediate moratorium on cryptocurrency donations to political parties in March, citing the Rycroft review’s warning that digital assets could be used to funnel foreign money into UK politics.
The ban covers donations of any size and will be included in the People’s Representation Bill, with criminal penalties for non-compliance.
That same month, Farage invested £215,000 ($286,000) in Stack BTC, a London-listed bitcoin treasury company chaired by former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, taking a 6.31% stake through his Thorn In The Side investment vehicle.
