Farage responds to claim he 'rigged' the 2019 election
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Ex-Reform politician Ben Habib predicted Farage wouldn't take legal action, but now he's threatened to — will he follow through?

Nigel Farage and Ben Habib in separate photos and in the foreground is flying cash

This week, former Reform UK deputy leader, Ben Habib, accused Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson of colluding to rig the 2019 election.

Big allegations here 👇👇👇 https://t.co/0GXwyEIg9y

— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) May 12, 2026

As we’ll get into, the accusation he made isn’t quite the one which is being shared above. Habib still made a very serious allegation, however, so it’s unsurprising that Nigel Farage has now responded.

Farage election scandal: Who and what is involved?

We assume that readers are familiar with Nigel Farage and former prime minister, Boris Johnson. You may be less familiar with the donor Christopher Harborne and the accuser, Ben Habib.

Harborne recently attracted attention because we learned he gave Farage a £5 million ‘gift’ before the 2024 general election. This proved controversial because Farage didn’t declare the gift.

He’s very rattled about this and rightly so. It’s a scandal. https://t.co/5kd4PXuz7G

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 9, 2026

This is what the Canary reported on 6 March:

Back in May, Farage told the Las Vegas Bitcoin Conference that his party would launch a “crypto revolution”. On the same day, Reform announced that it would start accepting donations in crypto.

Then, in the very next financial quarter, Harborne’s major £9 million donation to Reform rolled in on 1 August. It was the largest ever gift from a private individual to a political party.

At the time, the Canary highlighted that Harborne also donated millions to the Brexit Party in 2019, as well as to the Conservatives between 2001 and 2022. While Harborne is British, he’s now based in Thailand.

Meanwhile, Habib left Reform UK to establish Advance UK. He’s stated that his problem with Reform was Farage and how he runs the party.

Advance UK is a democratic movement. Members endorse our mission, not the other way around. No censorship. No cronyism. Just serious, open politics. pic.twitter.com/lItBkNsKBz

— Ben Habib (@BackBrexitBen) August 9, 2025

Habib: ‘This is the first time I’ve said this’

In the video at the top, Habib says:

I have never said this publicly before, but now that we’ve discovered this is the first time I’ve said this, Paul, but now that we’ve discovered five million quid went to Farage in 2024, I am obliged to disclose the million quid which I believe went to Farage in late 2022 as well. And that smacks to me of a deal.

The 2019 general election was sewn up between Nigel Farage, Christopher Harborne and Boris Johnson. And it was a monetary deal. That’s how I see it.

Habib also said:

Now, Harborne had always told me that he wanted Brexit, he believed in Brexit, and it was an admirable thing that the Brexit Party was doing to fight for Brexit, and that’s why he donated, I think he donated £14 million in total to the Brexit Party. Without Christopher Harborne, there was no Brexit Party.

But you’ll also remember, and viewers will remember, that suddenly, in the general election of 2019, Farage stood down 317 Brexit Party candidates against the Tory party across the country. Every single Tory MP had no Brexit Party opposition. He killed the Brexit Party’s prospects in that general election and he ensured a Boris Johnson government in one move like that.

And the argument that Farage made in 2019 was, if I don’t do that, we might get Corbyn, there’ll be a second referendum, and we might lose Brexit. And I bought that argument. But that argument failed to hold water when Farage refused to bring pressure on Boris Johnson to get a proper Brexit.

He just left the battlefield at that point. We all knew the withdrawal agreement was crap. We all knew that Boris Johnson was hopeless at the whole thing. And Farage swanned off.

The financial details

People have suggested Habib claimed Harborne paid Farage and Johnson £1 million apiece to rig the election. This presumably must mean the 2019 election as it was the only election in which Farage and Johnson opposed one another as leaders of political parties. This is somewhat at odds with the allegations Habib made in the clip, which is that Harborne:

  • Paid Farage £1m in 2022
  • Paid Johnson in £1m in 2023
  • Had a “monetary deal” in 2019 to ‘sew up’ the election

In other words, be careful when repeating Habib’s allegations to avoid inviting legal action yourself. Either way, Habib has indeed suggested money changed hands to influence the outcome of the 2019 election. He just hasn’t attached a figure to it.

Regardless of the specifics, Farage had responded:

My lawyers have formally written to Ben Habib.

They demanded an immediate apology and public retraction for the baseless allegations he made today.

I do not take legal action often. But I will not accept slander & politically motivated smears after winning a national election.

In the video at the top, Habib was confident Farage wouldn’t take legal action.

He said:

Now, I have said a number of things just now to you, Paul, which would end with me being, which should end with me being on the end of legal action from Christopher Harborne and Nigel Farage, if what I’ve said is wrong. They will not sue me because what I’m telling you is the truth.

We’re now waiting to see if Farage follows through or it all gets quietly dropped.

Big money

Even if Habib’s 2019 election claims don’t bear out, we know a foreign-based crypto-billionaire has donated millions to Farage and his political parties. People are free to believe that he’s doing so out of the goodness of his heart, but we’re not convinced anyone with that much money has that much heart.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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