The previously undisclosed £5mn ‘gift’ that Nigel Farage received from the British-born, Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne in mid-2024, shortly before reversing his decision not to stand as an MP in the coming general election, has certainly raised a few questions. Farage claims he was under no obligation to declare it since he wasn’t an MP at the time and, anyway, it was simply a no-strings-attached gift.
I’m sure we are all very pleased for him. Parliamentary authorities, however, are sceptical and have launched an investigation. Farage may eventually face a recall petition and a by-election if the standards commissioner hands out a lengthy suspension.
Not being a details man, he probably didn’t realise the rules require new members, within one month of their election, to declare “any registrable benefits (other than earnings) received in the 12 months before their election”. Personal gifts can be ignored, but only if they are from family members and even then, “the possible motive of the giver and the use to which the gift is to be put should be considered. If there is any doubt, the benefit should be registered”.
Registrable means anything that “might reasonably be thought by others to influence his or her actions, speeches or votes in Parliament, or actions taken in his or her capacity as a Member of Parliament”.
The money is reported to have been accompanied by a legal document declaring it to be “unconditional and irrevocable”. The Reform UK leader also suggested it was for his personal security, saying: “This money is the only way I can look after myself, and protect myself for the rest of my life”. That explanation barely survived the week with Farage later telling The Sun instead that it was “a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years”.
Was the £5mn really just a gift?
Some, including Farage’s former colleague Ben Habib, suggest the purpose of the £5mn was to persuade Farage to stand as MP for Clacton. Farage formally announced on 23 May 2024 that he would not be a candidate in the general election that PM Rishi Sunak had announced the previous day. By 3 June, Farage had changed his mind. He would stand after all, and he was elected on 5 July with a 45% swing, the largest for any seat at a UK general election.
By mid-2024 remember, Mr Harborne had already poured more than £10mn into The Brexit Party or Reform UK Limited and presumably recognised that, without Farage, his generous donations were just money down the drain. Farage likes to surround himself with nonentities, and nobody else in Reform UK came anywhere close to him as a front man.
It’s a plausible explanation, in the opinion of many.
Habib has also alleged, saying he has it “on good authority”, that Harborne gave £1mn to Farage – and to Boris Johnson – in late 2022 as payment for The Brexit Party standing down all its candidates in Tory-held constituencies in the 2019 general election as part of a deal with Johnson to “get Brexit done”. Farage denies wrongdoing and has launched legal action against Habib.
Did Harborne get anything in return?
It may be that Harborne genuinely expected nothing in return, but it does rather test credulity, almost to destruction.
In any case, not expecting anything isn’t the same as not getting anything, even if it was not as part of any deal. I am sure if any of us received £5mn from a friend or acquaintance, we might feel obliged to offer a small token of our appreciation.
Imagine, therefore, Harborne’s surprise and delight when, in May 2025, Reform UK published a draft bill confirming that, as prime minister, “Nigel Farage will enact the Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill.” The proposed bill’s stated purpose is to “make the UK a global hub for blockchain technology”. The draft includes cutting capital gains tax on crypto assets to 10% and establishing a bitcoin reserve at the Bank of England.
Farage even attended a crypto conference in Las Vegas, of all places, to publicise Reform UK’s new policy, telling the audience his party would launch a “crypto revolution” in the UK.
How Harborne might benefit from Reform’s crypto bill
Harborne holds approximately 12% of Tether, an El Salvador-based company and the world’s largest issuer of stablecoin, a type of cryptocurrency. Tether has been described as the most profitable company per employee in history. Tether’s stablecoin is also believed to have been put to illicit purposes by gangsters, scammers, Russian sanctions-busters, North Korean hackers and others who would rather avoid the scrutiny involved in moving money via an orthodox bank operating under tight rules, according to The Guardian.
Harborne, known as Chakrit Sakunkrit in Thailand, is also CEO of Sherriff Global Group, which deals in private planes, and he is the owner of AML Global, a company that sells jet fuel.
Tether is in the process of raising extra funding and aiming for a market capitalisation of $500bn. Reform UK’s bill could help in that ambition by giving bitcoin the Bank of England’s stamp of approval. If Tether achieved that valuation and Harborne retained his current shareholding, it could in theory value his stake at around $60bn.
Oddly, cryptocurrency didn’t figure at all in Reform UK’s 2024 manifesto.
Less than a year later, the party had a draft bill ready to compete with the official UK government’s draft Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Cryptoassets) order 2025.
Where did the bill originate?
As far as I can see, it’s the only draft bill that Reform UK has ever published. It’s not clear whether Harborne had a hand in suggesting, preparing or approving the text, or whether Farage’s interest in crypto assets simply came out of the blue and emerged coincidentally without any input from Tether or Harborne.
However, the bill is clearly a Farage-driven effort. Farage had stepped down as party leader in March 2021 and Richard Tice took over.
In late 2022, Farage attended a crypto conference in Amsterdam, promoting cryptocurrency as a means for people worried about the sheer size and scale of big government, to be “independent, masters of their own destiny”. He then flew to the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary, owned by Harborne, on the Thai island of Koh Samui to celebrate the Thai-based billionaire’s 60th birthday.
A Reform UK spokesman told The Guardian that Farage’s support of cryptocurrencies came as a result of him being debanked in 2022. But Gawain Towler, a former communications chief for Farage, says his interest went back to early 2019 and his meeting Harborne.
Reform UK’s 2024 manifesto was presumably finalised in the second quarter of 2024, before Farage took the reins again as party leader at the start of election campaign. The official policy then was to oppose an official Central Bank Digital Currency (p24). Now, Reform UK is proposing that the UK Treasury “create and manage a Bitcoin Reserve Fund as part of the UK’s official reserves, diversifying holdings, signalling confidence in digital assets and capturing potential long-run appreciation”.
It’s also not known if the staff at Reform UK who worked on drafting the legislation, or the people consulted on it, were aware of Harborne’s £5mn gift to their party leader and, if they were, whether anyone advised Farage that it might look to a cynic (or indeed an impartial observer) as though the two things were directly linked.
As far as I can see, no other opposition party has a similar policy, or one as detailed and advanced.
Who actually paid for Farage’s security?
The £5mn was said to be for the ‘security’ of Farage, who seems to be permanently in fear for his life. Last October, Reform UK were furious when the UK government cut Farage’s publicly-funded security detail by 75%. Chairman Zia Yusuf claimed the decision had been taken by parliamentary officials for “inexplicable reasons”, but said that “party donors” were stepping in to “ensure that [Farage’s] security is shored up”.
It begs the question whether Yusuf was referring to Harborne, who has donated a total of £22mn to Reform UK Limited when he spoke of party donors in the plural? Did Yusuf know about the £5mn? Were other party donors tapped for money, unaware that Harborne had already provided it?
If that happened, what do those other donors think now? Also, why were public funds being used to provide security up to October 2025 when Farage had been given more than enough money explicitly for that purpose by Harborne?
Farage has also claimed the £885,000 paid in cash in November 2024 for a property in his Clacton constituency came from his partner’s family. According to a BBC investigation, they appear to be of relatively modest means.
Were they aware that Farage had been gifted £5mn a few months earlier by a generous benefactor? If not, what do they think now?
Let us hope that the parliamentary authorities help uncover the facts.
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