Nigel Farage has insisted he could spend the £5 million gift from a crypto billionaire “on cars if [he] wanted to”, as he told journalists questioning him that what he did with the money is “none of your business”.
The Commons sleaze watchdog is investigating the Reform UK leader for failing to declare the multimillion-pound donation from party donor Christopher Harborne, made weeks before Mr Farage stood in the 2024 general election.
Mr Farage has previously insisted the gift was given to pay for private security for the rest of his life, but also later claimed it was a “reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years”.
Mr Farage insisted “no one cares” about the money on Tuesday, and when asked by BBC Breakfast how much of the gift he had spent, he said: “It’s none of your business.”
“I’m absolutely convinced I’ve done nothing wrong in any way at all,” he said, adding he did not regret failing to declare the donation at the time.
“I also know that since I was elected as an MP, I’ve taken zero in personal expenses. I’m very careful and very cautious about these things. I believe it to be a wholly private matter. The standards commissioner may take a different view.”
Asked what the gift was for, Mr Farage said: “Let’s be clear, it’s an unconditional gift. I can spend it on cars if I want to. It’s entirely up to me, right.
“But there is a specific reason for this. I have been physically the most attacked and endangered politician in Britain for now well over a decade. At every stage during that time, when I’ve asked the state to help and support, most times they have point blank refused.”
Mr Harborne’s donations to Mr Farage and Reform UK have been a subject of particular controversy for the party, after he gifted it £9m last August – the biggest single donation in history to a political party from a living person – and a further £3m this year.
Mr Farage’s recent disclosure of the £5m “gift” from the crypto entrepreneur has prompted an investigation by Westminster’s standards watchdog into whether Mr Farage broke Commons rules by not declaring it after his election in 2024.
If the probe finds he committed a serious breach of parliament’s rules, he could be suspended from the Commons. A suspension of 10 days or more could trigger a recall petition, which could potentially see him forced to fight his Clacton seat again.
Asked if he had given an interview about the possibility of becoming an MP before accepting the gift, Mr Farage said: “Yeah. And after that I said, after that I said, ‘I will not stand in this election’. And I was pretty clear when a snap election was called that I wasn’t going to do it. I did change my mind subsequently.”
