{"id":581713,"date":"2026-05-13T13:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/581713\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T13:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:01:07","slug":"nigel-farage-faces-inquiry-over-5m-gift-from-crypto-billionaire-nigel-farage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/581713\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage faces inquiry over \u00a35m gift from crypto billionaire | Nigel Farage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigel Farage is facing a formal investigation<\/a> by the parliamentary standards watchdog over a \u00a35m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.<\/p>\n

The Reform UK<\/a> leader received the money weeks before announcing he would stand as a candidate in the 2024 general election.<\/p>\n

Farage has said the gift, first revealed by the Guardian<\/a>, was intended to cover his personal security costs<\/a> and therefore did not need to be declared.<\/p>\n

The parliamentary commissioner for standards is understood to have begun an investigation under rule 5 of the code of conduct obliging MPs to \u201cfulfil conscientiously\u201d requirements relating to their registration of interests.<\/p>\n

It states that new MPs must register all their current financial interests, and any registrable benefits \u2013 other than received in the 12 months before their election \u2013 within one month of their election, and Members must register any change in those registrable interests within 28 days.<\/p>\n

However, Labour and other parties argue that MPs are required to declare any potentially relevant gifts or donations received in the 12 months before entering parliament, and that the money from the Thailand-based Harborne falls within these rules.<\/p>\n

If the investigation finds Farage committed a particularly serious breach of parliamentary declaration rules, he could be suspended from the Commons. A suspension of 10 days or more could trigger a recall petition, potentially forcing him to fight again for his Clacton seat.<\/p>\n

A Reform UK spokesperson said: \u201cMr Farage\u2019s office is in communications with the parliamentary commissioner for standards. He has always been clear that this was a personal, unconditional gift and no rules were broken. We look forward to this being put to bed once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Reform\u2019s deputy leader, Richard Tice, said the \u00a35m gift was \u201cprobably not enough\u201d to ensure Farage\u2019s safety. He told the BBC\u2019s Laura Kuenssberg: \u201cThe rules are very clear and Nigel has complied with the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour party, said after news of the standards inquiry broke: \u201cNigel Farage has been avoiding legitimate questions since news of his billionaire backer\u2019s \u2018gift\u2019. It\u2019s right that he faces a proper investigation. Farage and Reform clearly believe it\u2019s one rule for them, and another for everyone else.\u200b\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage is facing a formal investigation by the parliamentary standards watchdog over a \u00a35m gift from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-581713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}