Nigel Farage says he had “no obligation” to declare a £5 million gift ($6.7 million) from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. The UK Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is now looking into whether that was right.
The BBC reported on Wednesday that the commissioner has opened an inquiry into whether the Reform UK leader broke House of Commons rules by not registering the payment. Harborne is a Reform UK backer. Farage received the money before he was elected to the Commons in 2024, and he has described it as a personal, unconditional gift.
His critics see a gap in that account. Opposition parties argue the payment should have appeared in the MPs’ register of interests once he took his seat.
How it started
The Conservatives wrote to the standards watchdog asking it to investigate, the BBC said. They also raised the matter with the Electoral Commission, which is reportedly deciding whether to open a formal investigation of its own into the donation.
It is not the only question hanging over Farage’s finances. A month earlier, the Liberal Democrats asked the Financial Conduct Authority to examine whether he broke market rules by appearing in a promotional video for Stack BTC while holding a financial stake in the company. Farage had disclosed a $286,000 equity investment in Stack BTC, a 6.31% stake bought in March through his media company Thorn In The Side.
Crypto money in British politics
Reform UK was the first party to accept crypto donations, starting in 2025. It recently disclosed a $4 million donation from Harborne for the fourth quarter of 2025, following a record $12 million gift the quarter before.
Political crypto donations are legal in the UK under Electoral Commission guidance, but some parliamentary committees want them stopped. On March 18, the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy urged the government to impose an immediate moratorium until the Electoral Commission issues statutory guidance ahead of the next general election, due by August 2029. The committee also proposed a Political Finance Enforcement Unit and a cut in the minimum declaration threshold for political donations, from $14,900 to $668. It cited growing foreign-state threats and efforts to influence UK positions on relations with the US, the European Union and Ukraine.
The committee’s chair, Matt Western, had called for a temporary halt three weeks earlier, pointing to the risk of foreign interference.
Sources
- Farage Faces UK Standards Probe over $7M Gift from Crypto Billionaire
- Nigel Farage Faces Standards Probe Over Undeclared £5M Gift | Market Crypto crime | CryptoRank.io
