British Reform leader Nigel Farage received around £5 million (around $6.7 million) from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne before announcing his candidacy for the seat of Clacton in 2024, the Guardian reported on Wednesday.
The Conservatives referred him to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, while Labor also accused him of breaking Commons rules.
Farage confirmed the gift in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, saying it was intended to keep him “safe 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 who owns 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’s election and said his decision to stand as an MP was “completely unrelated”.
The spokesperson, the report added, said: “We are confident that everything was declared in accordance with the rules.”
The Commons code of conduct requires new MPs to record benefits received in the 12 months before their election and states that any benefits must be recorded if in doubt. Reformers argue that this gift falls under 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 had been used to support political activities rather than to support security. Labor Party president Anna Turley said Farage “appears to have broken the rules again”.
Crypto donations in the UK
Harborne gave Reform £9 million, then worth about $12 million, late last year, the largest donation ever made to a British political party from a living person.
Earlier this month, Ben Delo, co-founder of BitMEX, said in an op-ed that he had donated £4 million ($5.1 million) to the reform since the start of the year.
The British government imposed an immediate moratorium on cryptocurrency donations to political parties in March, citing Rycroft Review’s warning that digital assets could be used to funnel foreign money into British politics.
The ban covers donations of any size and will be included in the Representation of the People Bill, with criminal penalties for non-compliance.
The 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 investment vehicle Thorn In The Side.
