Nigel Farage and Reform UK are facing multiple police and parliamentary investigations into various donations and benefits they’ve received. When it comes to the notorious £5 million ‘gift’, Farage’s defence has included the claim that he wasn’t involved in politics at the time. Now, a new scoop from the Times has blown Farage’s claim out of the water.
EXCLUSIVE
Nigel Farage struck secret deal for return as Reform leader months before election — challenging claim he wasn’t involved in politics so didn’t need to report gifts.
In May 24 he showed deal to treasurer, who tonight acknowledged its existence https://t.co/HkD5bKIw5d
— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) August 1, 2026
Farage claimed crypto bro gave him funds
We previously reported the following on his £5m problem:
Farage accepted the £5m gift from Harborne – a crypto billionaire – in 2024. At the time, he’d said he wouldn’t run in the general election, but this changed after he received the £5m. The problem is that after he became an MP, he was supposed to declare any ‘registrable benefits’ from the previous 12 months. Farage did not declare the £5m, and now it looks like he was purposefully trying to hide it.
Since taking the £5 million, Farage has gone on to publicly support crypto, and as Reform Party UK Exposed noted:
Out of nowhere, Farage who previously was stating cash is king and despite claiming he was in to crypto in 2020 had not advocated publicly for it.
His only tweet with an opinion on it was in 2022 where he criticised Biden for taking donations from… a tech entrepreneur (Sam Bankman-Fried, jailed for wire fraud).
Then magically Reform UK produce a Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill, with no prior advocacy in May 2025. Reform UK then accepts donations in crypto.
This chain of events demonstrates why MPs are expected to declare money or donations they receive in the run-up to entering Parliament. Farage’s conversion to becoming a crypto-booster looks a lot different when you know about the gift. And now, the meager defence Farage had is being torn to shreds.
Reform leader shifts his stories
Farage previously excused not declaring the gift on the following basis:
At that period of my life, from 2021 to the third of June 2024, I was a broadcaster, I was someone that appeared on celebrity TV programmes, I was somebody that promoted some financial market products, but I was an influencer, I wasn’t in politics.
Now, new revelations published by the Times suggest he had agreed to return to politics by June 2024.
Nigel Farage struck a secret deal to return as leader of Reform UK months before the general election.
Farage negotiated the pact with Richard Tice, then the leader, in March and April 2024. George Cottrell, the convicted fraudster who had been secretly bankrolling Farage, supervised the discussions.
Reform has attempted to excuse the deal by saying it was “drafted for if, not when, Farage became leader”. As the Times has noted, however, Farage signed the agreement, which seems like an odd thing to do if he was undecided. Reform claims doing so “kept his options open”, which again, doesn’t seem to make sense.
The Times also revealed that this agreement saw Reform paying back Richard Tice several hundred thousand pounds. In the process of returning this money, however, the party accidentally sent a lump sum to Tice’s personal account instead of the relevant business account. This means the party gave false information to the Electoral Commission, which could be treated as a criminal offence.
He said he sought to address the erroneous £200k payment to Tice’s account, but was blocked.
Reform sources say Tice transferred the money from his account to his company, effectively remedying the matter.
— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) August 1, 2026
Shot in the foot
While Farage is running the Clacton by-election, the parliamentary investigation into him is paused. This could end up working against him because the longer the pause is, the more investigators may uncover.
Featured image via Andrew Crowley
By Willem Moore
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