{"id":626817,"date":"2026-06-08T01:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/626817\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T01:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:38:09","slug":"labour-urges-farage-to-stop-evading-scrutiny-over-5m-gift-from-crypto-billionaire-nigel-farage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/626817\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour urges Farage to stop evading scrutiny over \u00a35m gift from crypto billionaire | Nigel Farage"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Labour party has written to Nigel Farage urging him to stop \u201cevading reasonable scrutiny\u201d over the \u00a35m personal gift he received from the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The letter coincides with approval of a planning application that reveals the Reform leader\u2019s plans to transform a dilapidated Kent<\/a> property into a luxury beachfront residence.<\/p>\n

Farage is under investigation<\/a> by the parliamentary standards commissioner after the Guardian revealed that he received the \u00a35m gift<\/a> in the weeks before he U-turned on his decision not to stand as an MP in the 2024 general election.<\/p>\n

He was subsequently elected to parliament as the MP for Clacton in Essex and kept a high media profile with weekly press conferences. These regular events have stopped since the Guardian broke the news in April.<\/p>\n

Anna Turley, the Labour<\/a> party chair, accused Farage of \u201crunning from scrutiny\u201d. She said: \u201cIt\u2019s time he ended his deafening silence and came clean with the public as to what\u2019s gone on here. He can\u2019t keep dodging questions and changing his story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farage first said the gift was to pay for personal security for the rest of his life, before changing tack after questioning and saying he considered it a reward from Harborne for having campaigned for Brexit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has insisted there was no need to declare the \u00a35m to the authorities because he was not an MP at the time he received it.<\/p>\n

Anna Turley, the Labour party chair, accused Farage of \u2018dodging questions and changing his story\u2019. Photograph: Jaimi Joy\/Reuters<\/p>\n

In the letter sent to Farage, Turley said his \u201cshifting accounts have raised further serious questions about whether you have broken parliamentary rules, about potential conflicts of interest and about whether you have told the truth\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added that the matter was of significant public interest, writing: \u201cThe British people, and the relevant authorities and regulators deserve one clear and truthful account of what happened. You have refused to answer questions from journalists asking about the extraordinary sum of money you received. That is not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, details emerged of Farage\u2019s plans to overhaul one of his properties \u2013 a beachfront house in Kent. Farage\u2019s company, Thorn in the Side Ltd, purchased the home in the village of Greatstone on the south Kent coast in March 2023 for \u00a3575,000. An application was then submitted to redevelop the property, including the building of a large extension, the Daily Mirror reported.<\/p>\n

A design statement said the proposed works would \u201ctransform the property into a high-quality, contemporary family home\u201d, with four bedrooms, a sea-view balcony with glazed privacy screens, a log burner, a lift and six bathrooms.<\/p>\n

A housing expert told the Mirror that the proposed work could cost up to \u00a3700,000 and could make the property worth as much as \u00a31.5m.<\/p>\n

In May, the Reform leader acquired another property<\/a> weeks after receiving Harborne\u2019s gift. Farage, rather than Thorn in the Side, paid \u00a31.4m for the Surrey home, which is not mortgaged.<\/p>\n

Reform told the BBC that Farage\u2019s \u00a31.5m fee for participating in the ITV show I\u2019m a Celebrity\u2009\u2026\u2009Get Me Out of Here! in late 2023 paid for the property, and that the purchase had commenced before he received the gift.<\/p>\n

However, the Financial Times reported that accounts for Thorn in the Side, which handles Farage\u2019s media activities, suggested this money was not withdrawn at the time of the house purchase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Farage was paid \u00a31.5m for appearing on ITV\u2019s I\u2019m a Celebrity \u2026 Get Me Out of Here! in 2023. Photograph: James Gourley\/ITV\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Farage said that work on the first planning application for the house in Kent began in November 2023, \u201ca long time before the unconditional gift was made\u201d.<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cThe second application related to more modest plans than those originally proposed. No building work has even commenced on the property in question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the Surrey<\/a> house, a Reform spokesperson previously said it was not bought with Harborne\u2019s gift, and suggested that this was proved by the fact that anti-money laundering checks relating to the purchase were carried out before the gift was made.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said: \u201cNigel has multiple sources of income, as you can see from his parliamentary register.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get in touch<\/p>\n

Contact Guardian Politics about this story<\/p>\n

The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact the Guardian’s UK Politics team confidentially using the following methods:<\/p>\n

Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/p>\n

The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n

If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS<\/a>\/Android<\/a>) and go to the menu. Scroll down and click on Secure Messaging. When asked who you wish to contact please select the Politics (UK) team.<\/p>\n

Email<\/p>\n

For encrypted email correspondence you can create a free Proton Mail account and email us at guardian.politics.desk@protonmail.com.<\/p>\n

SecureDropIf you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, our guide at theguardian.com\/tips<\/a>\u00a0lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Show more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Labour party has written to Nigel Farage urging him to stop \u201cevading reasonable scrutiny\u201d over the \u00a35m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-626817","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\/626817","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=626817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}