Kemi Badenoch has accused the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of ducking a high-profile TV interview on Sunday to avoid questions about his £5m “gift” from a Thai-based billionaire.
Mr Farage had been due to appear on the BBC’s flagship political programme Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg and even appeared in online advertisements for the show as late as Saturday.
But as she introduced the programme, Ms Kuenssberg told viewers that Mr Farage was not there, adding: “His team told us, he’s changed his mind”.
In response, Conservative and Labour politicians accused the normally not publicity shy Mr Farage of “running scared” of scrutiny over the donation, which was revealed earlier this week and has been referred to Parliament’s standards watchdog.
Ms Badenoch said: “Why did Farage run scared from news interviews today? It’s because there’s something fishy about the £5 million he took. And he knows it. He’s normally very happy to shout from a TV studio – as long as he controls the terms.”
Labour minister Chris Bryant later tweeted of Mr Farage: “He hates scrutiny”.
And Labour MP David Pinto-Duschinsky claimed he had “pulled out of TV interviews today to avoid talking about a £5m donation he failed to declare”.
Mr Farage was referred to the watchdog after he admitted he received the money from Christopher Harborne, a British national who helped bankroll Brexit, back in 2024.
The Reform leader has come under fire for failing to declare the donation – which was given weeks before he declared he would run in the general election – which the Tories say should have been reported to Commons authorities.
Mr Farage said the money “was given to me so that I would be safe and secure for the rest of my life.
“I have tried and failed in the past to get security funded by the Home Office, and I don’t think the state will ever help me.
“I’m very much on my own and will be for the rest of my life, and I have to face up to that grim reality.
“Christopher is an ardent supporter who is deeply concerned for my safety.”
Mr Harborne’s donations to Mr Farage and Reform UK have been the subject of particular controversy for the party, after he gifted a record-breaking £9 million donation last August and a further £3m this year.
The separate £5m for Mr Farage was not subject to tax or declared to the parliamentary authorities as it did not count as a political donation, according to The Telegraph.
But Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said it was “the latest alarming example of Farage and his MPs believing there is one rule for them and another for everyone else”.
And Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake said Mr Farage would have been obliged to report all political donations and gifts he had received during the previous 12 months as a new MP.
The Reform leader is regularly heckled while out in public and famously had a milkshake thrown on him while campaigning in his now-constituency Clacton-on-Sea ahead of the general election in 2024.
He also revealed he had been the victim of a firebomb attack on his home in 2025, and told The Telegraph: “It was an outright arson attempt.”
He said that while police investigated the attack, a suspect had yet to be identified.
