Nigel Farage took £5m personally from a crypto billionaire. The policy change followed.

[UknownM]

Did anyone else clock the Sky News reporting on the £5m personal gift to Farage?

Christopher Harborne, a Tether billionaire, gave Farage £5m personally in early 2024. Farage cash-bought a £1.4m house in May 2024 (location undisclosed, not in Clacton). Harborne has given Reform UK a further £12m on top, taking the total to about £17m. Reform UK then became the first UK party to accept crypto donations and launched a bill that would cut crypto capital gains tax from 24 per cent to a flat 10 per cent. Roughly a month after one of the £9m tranches, Farage went on LBC and defended Tether by name. The UK government has gone the other way and banned crypto political donations from March 2025.

The Clacton property Farage said he had bought turns out to be his partner's. Laure Ferrari paid £885k cash for it in November 2024 and won't say where the money came from beyond "a very large inheritance".

Standards Commissioner is investigating. Farage says the £5m was a "reward for campaigning for Brexit" and that Harborne wants nothing in return.

Full timeline with sources cited inline: trendingsheet.com/article/farage-5-million-tether-crypto-donor-christopher-harborne-uk

Is this a "donor wanted nothing in return" story or something else?

Farage is an out and out crook in plain sight.

All donations from people and companies not in Britain should stop. Whether they are to Labour, Conservative, Reform whoever. Harborne gave £22m to Reform in total , including Farages ' security ' bung.He's not running a charity out in Thailand. So what does he want in return?

We need to be careful with this craze for judging people by their actions. You risk abandoning nuance.

Far better to take their explanations at face value. After all, no one is better placed to know the truth about themselves.

I know, @BorisBigBalls .

Looking at what people do, rather than only what they say, might become a dangerous trend...

So now only 4 people knew about it and it was leaked by a Russian hack. And farage is trying to make himself look like the victim!!

why’d you want to keep it secret Nige?

”Why’d you want to keep it secret Nige?”

Good question @BeardySchnauzer

What the...?

So now Nigel's story is:
• he admits he was paid £5 million by a millionaire in Thailand
• he admits he didn't declare it, although this was less than 12 months before he became an MP
• he claims he (or someone) fell for a spear-phishing attack by the Russians, who have now had access to his phone, email and bank accounts while he is a serving UK MP
• but he doesn't appear to have bothered to report this to the security services.

Erm, Nigel, this isn't making you look better...

Farage under mounting pressure to prove Russian hack claim
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/24/farage-mounting-pressure-prove-russian-hack-claim