13 questions Farage must answer over his £5m ‘gift’ from a crypto billionaire

Nigel Farage’s response to newspaper revelations about a controversial and secret £5m donation he received £5m from a Thai-based cryptocurrency billionaire has raised more questions than it has supplied answers.

The Guardian has revealed Farage got the money from Christopher Harborne shortly before announcing he would stand at the 2024 general election – an election he had previously insisted he would not be running in. Once elected, Reform’s leader then failed to declare the donation – the biggest single sum ever accepted by a UK politician – to parliamentary authorities.

Farage says he did not need to do so because it was a personal gift from Harborne, who had become concerned about the populist politician’s lack of security. Harborne told the Telegraph he was with Farage when he had a milkshake thrown at him in 2019, and the paper reported: “after seeing at first-hand how exposed he was, he decided ‘to support Nigel’s security not just now, but for the rest of his life’.” Farage has told the Telegraph that last year, his house was the subject of what he described as a firebomb attack.

Yet these accounts throw up a series of questions, which we have put to Reform and its leader:

1) You have stated that the £5m personal contribution you received from Christopher Harborne was for your personal security. Do you plan to disclose top-line expense receipts to show the funds have not been used for any other purpose, including but not confined to your recent £215,000 investment in a cryptocurrency company operated by the former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, or for the £885,000 house in Clacton bought in late 2024 by your partner Laure Ferrari? Will you share them with parliamentary authorities if you will not share them publicly?

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2) What safeguards have you and/or Reform put in place to separate this money from the money you earn as an MP, your earnings as an ambassador for a gold company, your appearances on Cameo, or your other outside financial interests? Is it held in a separate account?

3) Have you informed parliamentary security and your designated police contact (which is supplied to all MPs) about your private security arrangements?

4) You have previously stated that on police advice, you hold no parliamentary surgeries, but the police denied ever issuing you with that advice. Given that we now know you have a large private security budget, why are you unable to hold constituency surgeries?

5) You have said that you previously did not publicly disclose a firebomb attack on your home, but you have disclosed other such attacks to the press. Why was this one treated differently? Can you confirm that it was reported to the police at the time, and share this report?

6) Can you confirm that you have never charged Reform for security, given you have your arrangements secured for life? Would Reform personnel be able to confirm that?

7) Why, if Christopher Harborne decided “to support Nigel’s security not just now, but for the rest of his life”, after seeing you hit with a milkshake in 2019, do you think he waited until 2024 to do something about it? If he made personal donations to you in the years in between, will you now disclose the amounts and dates involved?

7) Why, if Harborne’s contribution was for security, did you not proactively disclose this, instead waiting for the Guardian to disclose it?

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8) On May 23, 2024, you said you would not stand at the general election. On June 1, 2024, you said you would stand. You say the donation from Harborne came before May 23; can you reveal the exact timeline of offer and donation to remove any inference that this payment influenced your decision to stand?

9) Have any other Reform candidates received undisclosed sums in a personal capacity from Harborne, to the best of your knowledge? Do you intend to disclose if any have?

10) Would you support candidates of other parties receiving seven-figure sums from foreign nationals shortly before standing for parliament, or do you believe disclosure rules should be changed?

11) Given that the £5m was described as a personal gift to keep you “safe and secure for the rest of your life,” have you or your security team conducted a risk assessment that justified such a substantial sum for lifelong private security arrangement, and if so, would you share the findings with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards?