Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is facing a parliamentary standards investigation after revelations that he received a £5 million (approximately $6.7 million) personal gift from Christopher Harborne, a billionaire who holds a 12% stake in stablecoin issuer Tether. The previously undisclosed payment was made in 2024 before Farage announced his candidacy for the Clacton parliamentary seat.
According to The Guardian, the Conservatives have referred Farage to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, while Labour has accused him of breaching House of Commons rules. Farage confirmed the gift in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, stating it was intended to cover personal security costs following a milkshake attack in 2019 and a firebomb incident at his home last year.
A Reform UK spokesman described the payment as a "personal unconditional gift" given before Farage was elected, insisting his decision to stand as an MP was "entirely unrelated." The spokesman added, "We are confident everything has been declared in accordance with the rules."
The Commons code of conduct requires new MPs to register benefits received in the 12 months before their election, with any benefit registered if there is doubt. Reform UK argues the gift falls under an exemption for purely personal gifts. However, Labour chair Anna Turley said Farage "appears to have broken the rules again."
Harborne’s gift to Farage is separate from his £9 million donation (then worth $12 million) to the Reform UK party late last year — the largest single donation to a UK political party from a living person on record — and a further £3 million contribution revealed in March. Neither donation was made in cryptocurrency, but they have intensified scrutiny over crypto industry involvement in UK political funding.
Earlier this month, BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo revealed a £4 million ($5.1 million) donation to Reform UK since the start of the year. Delo, a Hong Kong-based crypto billionaire, previously pleaded guilty in the U.S. to breaches of the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering failures.
In March 2026, the UK government imposed an immediate moratorium on crypto donations to political parties, citing the Rycroft review’s warning that digital assets could be used to channel foreign money into UK politics. The ban covers donations of any size and will be written into the Representation of the People Bill, with criminal penalties for non-compliance. Reform UK was the only major party to accept crypto donations prior to the ban.
Farage, who has positioned himself as a cryptocurrency champion calling for lower capital gains taxes and a national Bitcoin reserve, invested £215,000 ($286,000) in Stack BTC, a London-listed bitcoin treasury company, taking a 6.31% stake through his investment vehicle Thorn In The Side. Responding to the crypto donation ban, he accused Labour ministers of being "out of touch."
