{"id":585280,"date":"2026-05-15T10:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/585280\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T10:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:11:08","slug":"christopher-harborne-tycoon-who-gave-5m-to-farage-enters-uk-rich-list-at-no-6-rich-lists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/585280\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Harborne, tycoon who gave \u00a35m to Farage, enters UK rich list at No 6 | Rich lists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Harborne, the crypto billionaire who controversially gifted Nigel Farage \u00a35m<\/a>, has been named in the list of the UK\u2019s wealthiest people for the first time.<\/p>\n

Other first-timers include Noel and Liam Gallagher and Emily Eavis, the daughter of the Glastonbury festival founder, Michael Eavis, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List published on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harborne, who gave Farage the money weeks before the Reform leader announced he would stand as a candidate in the 2024 general election, is estimated to be the sixth-richest UK billionaire, with an estimated fortune of \u00a318.2bn.<\/p>\n

He is also the richest British-born person on the Sunday Times<\/a> list, which ranks the 350 wealthiest UK residents and Britons abroad.<\/p>\n

David and Victoria Beckham<\/a>, the Labour donor Gary Lubner and the sports promoters Barry and Eddie Hearn also join Britain\u2019s billionaire club for the first time.<\/p>\n

Farage originally said Harborne\u2019s gift, first revealed by the Guardian<\/a>, was intended to cover his personal security costs<\/a> and therefore did not need to be declared. On Thursday, after it emerged that Farage bought a \u00a31.4m property<\/a> in cash shortly after receiving the gift, he appeared to change this line, saying it was a \u201creward\u201d for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years.<\/p>\n

The parliamentary standards watchdog launched an investigation<\/a> this week into whether the money from the Thailand-based businessman falls within rules requiring MPs to declare any potentially relevant gifts or donations received in the 12 months before entering parliament.<\/p>\n

The Beckhams\u2019 entry makes David Britain\u2019s first billionaire sportsperson, with the couple\u2019s wealth estimated to have doubled over the last year to \u00a31.2bn, thanks to his stake in Inter Miami and a property empire adjoining the US football club\u2019s stadium.<\/p>\n

The value of Victoria Beckham\u2019s fashion label is also estimated to have increased in value, following a turnaround in financial performance after years of losses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lubner, the co-owner of the group behind Autoglass, who has given more than \u00a310m to the Labour party, has pledged to give away 95%<\/a> of his estimated \u00a31.3bn fortune.<\/p>\n

The Gallagher brothers have made their debut on the list thanks to their comeback tour<\/a>, with the 41 shows played taking nearly \u00a3400m, helping them to an estimated fortune of \u00a3375m.<\/p>\n

Sanjay and Dheeraj Hinduja and their family top the list again this year, worth \u00a338bn through their Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group.<\/p>\n

The combined wealth of the UK\u2019s 350 wealthiest individuals and families rose by 1.4% in the last year to \u00a3784bn. Britain\u2019s total of billionaires has grown by just one to 157. After peaking at 177 in 2022, the billionaire count had fallen for three years running.<\/p>\n

Robert Watts, the compiler of the rich list, said it had undergone significant change in the last few years. \u201cThis year\u2019s rich list is a tale of two exoduses. One in six of the individuals and families who appeared on the list two years ago don\u2019t feature this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany foreign billionaires who have been living in the UK have also dropped out because they have moved away. We have also seen a sharp rise in the number of British nationals now resident in Dubai, Switzerland and Monaco. As UK nationals these people remain on our rich list \u2013 wherever they now live.\u201d<\/p>\n

The list\u2019s top 10 wealthiest in the UK<\/p>\n

Sanjay and Dheeraj Hinduja and family: \u00a338bn<\/p>\n

David and Simon Reuben and family: \u00a327.971bn<\/p>\n

Leonard Blavatnik: \u00a326.852bn<\/p>\n

Idan Ofer: \u00a324.481bn<\/p>\n

Guy, George, Alannah and Galen Weston and family: \u00a318.939bn<\/p>\n

Christopher Harborne: \u00a318.177bn<\/p>\n

Nik Storonsky: \u00a316.411bn<\/p>\n

Alex Gerko: \u00a316.006bn<\/p>\n

Jim Ratcliffe: \u00a315.194bn<\/p>\n

Igor and Dmitry Bukhman: \u00a314.26bn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Harborne, the crypto billionaire who controversially gifted Nigel Farage \u00a35m, has been named in the list of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-585280","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\/585280","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=585280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}