Nigel Farage bought £1.4m house after receiving £5m gift from billionaire donor
Nigel Farage purchased a £1.4 million house in cash shortly after receiving a £5 million gift from a billionaire donor.
The leader of Reform was given the money by Christopher Harborne, a cryptocurrency investor based in Thailand, shortly before being elected to parliament.
Harborne is Reform UK’s largest donor. Farage has since insisted this was a “personal” donation to fund his security and did not need to be declared.
Farage received the £5 million in the early months of 2024. On May 10 that year, he completed the purchase of a £1.42 million house.
Weeks later, Rishi Sunak, the then prime minister, called the general election, and Farage announced his return to politics as the Reform UK candidate for Clacton-on-Sea in early June.
A spokesman for Reform UK said Farage had already begun the process of purchasing the house before receiving the gift.
“The relevant chronology is straightforward. The offer and purchase process for the property commenced before the gift,” they said.
“Mr Farage had already passed proof of funds and the relevant checks before receiving the gift. The purchase was therefore already proceeding independently of it.”
If Greenberg decides that he has broken the rules then he will submit a report to the Commons standards committee, which has the power to suspend Farage from the Commons and potentially prompt a “recall” petition in his Clacton constituency.
This would allow voters to trigger a by-election and force Farage to defend his seat again.
The House of Commons code of conduct states that new MPs “must register all their current financial interests, and any registrable benefits (other than earnings) received in the 12 months before their election within one month of their election”.
The rules say “purely personal gifts or benefits” from family or commercial loans would not normally have to be registered.
He told The Sun he “can’t be bought by anybody” and that he “is not the least bit concerned” about the investigation because he has proof the donation did not break the rules.
“I’m utterly confident,” he said. “I’ve got good lawyers, good accountants. I’ve done nothing wrong in any way at all. We’re entirely confident.”
He added that voters in Clacton-on-Sea “don’t care” about the donation. “They care if you’re a crook, which I’m not and never have been. But the fact that I made a few quid doing things, this doesn’t worry people at all.”
Politics Editor
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