07.05.2026
He who pays the piper
Nigel Farage likes to present himself as one of your mates down the pub, but in reality, writes Eddie Ford, his friends are filthy rich. Then there is Christopher Harborne, the crypto billionaire and Reform mega‑donor
Everyone expected Reform to do well on May 7. Politics are moving to the right across the world and mainstream liberal parties are getting hammered. It should be added that the right is extremely well financed, including, of course, Reform and its effective owner, Nigel Farage.
Farage likes to act as if he is an ordinary Brit who enjoys nothing more than a pint down the pub with his mates, but in reality his real friends are multimillionaires and - as we must all surely now know, thanks to recent headlines - billionaires. Or rather, one billionaire in particular, the Bangkok-based Christopher Harborne - a tech capitalist who has global business interests, not least in what is for many the mysterious world of cryptocurrencies. Harborne makes the vast majority of his fortune from early crypto bets, including a sizeable stake in the stablecoin platform, Tether. He also holds Thai citizenship under the name, Chakrit Sakunkrit, which (thanks to the Panama Papers revelations) appears to be a separate identity for business purposes - he uses that name as a director of the investment company, Seaminco Securities.1
On August 1 last year Harborne gave Reform a £9 million donation - the largest ever by a living individual, meaning at the time that Reform had raised more in donations than the Tories, Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined.2 Since then, of course, the only way is up - he donated another £3 million in March this year, making him the largest single donor to a UK political party in any financial year ever. As of last month, his overall donations so far to Reform UK amount to more than £22 million in total - roughly two-thirds of all the party’s donations since its foundation.
However, another British billionaire who helped build one of the world’s first major crypto trading platforms, and currently based in Hong Kong, Ben Delo, says he has given £4 million this year to Reform.3 He wrote in the Telegraph that he had made the donation before the government’s cap on donations to political parties by British citizens living abroad - Labour recently announced a new limit of £100,000 a year. Delo is now planning to move back to the UK and therefore will not be subject in the future to the new rules for donors. The cap may limit further contributions from Harborne, who is now based in Bangkok, though undoubtedly he will attempt to find a way around it, as he can literally afford the best lawyers money can buy.
In what must be music to Farage’s ears, Delo went on to tell the Telegraph that “the biggest obstacle to national recovery is the entrenched self-deception of our elites” - not referring to the likes of himself or Harborne, of course - and describes himself as a champion of free speech. Telling you how fabulously wealthy individuals like Delore like to operate, he has also given support to Rupert Lowe MP, who is challenging Nigel Farage from the right in the form of Restore UK,4 while also connecting with more mainstream figures, including Kemi Badenoch and former cabinet minister Michael Gove.
Gift
But we now have the furore over Nigel Farage receiving a £5 million ‘gift’ from Christopher Harborme in 2024 to apparently fund his personal security shortly before he became an MP - therefore that did count as a ‘political donation’, argues Farage (and, of course, was not subject to tax).5 We were further told that the Reform leader was only revealing details about the ‘gift’ because “someone has got hold of material about my personal finances, which is outrageous” - strongly hinting that the information had been illegally obtained, but did not say by whom or why.
Remember, before the general election Farage had said that he did not intend to stand as an MP. He told his no doubt sympathetic friends - but not the guys in the local boozer, you can guarantee - about the onerous financial toll his political career had placed on him. He had previously declared, Boris Johnson-like, that “there’s no money in politics”. But he suddenly changed his mind in June 2024. He also committed to remain Reform leader for five years, that, shortly before receiving Harborne’s donation (sorry, ‘gift’). So maybe there’s money in politics after all!
Farage also revealed that he was victim early last year of a firebombing attack on his home. An incendiary device was pushed through his letterbox. Hence “this money was given to me so that I would be safe and secure for the rest of my life”. Plucking the heartstrings, he explained how he has “tried and failed in the past to get security funded by the home office and I don’t think the state will ever help me.” He went on to complain about the “inexplicable” decision to reduce his government-funded security detail. But luckily Christopher Harborne is an “ardent supporter” who was deeply concerned about the Reform leader’s safety. So Farage can now afford his own private security. Apparently, the reason for this concern goes back to 2019, when Harborne accompanied Farage on the campaign trail when he was attacked … with a milkshake!
But this account does not entirely make sense. The firebombing that Farage mentions happened last year - a year after the gift from Harborne. Prior to publication, in correspondence with The Guardian, which broke the story of Harborne’s gift, neither Farage’s nor Harborne’s representatives mentioned security as being an issue at all. Or so it seems.
Whatever the exact timeline of events, the two have a strong connection, going back years. Previously, Harborne had given Reform’s forerunner, the Brexit Party, millions, already making him one of the largest British political donors in the modern era. Before that he had donated smaller sums averaging £15,000 per annum - coming to a total of about £270,000 - to the Conservative Party. In November 2022, Harborne actually donated £1 million to the office of Boris Johnson Ltd, one of the biggest donations ever made to an individual British politician. In turn (you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours), the government awarded Qinetiq, a company in which Harborne was the largest single shareholder, an £80 million ministry of defence contract in January 2023. Harborne is a perfect example of someone hedging their rightwing bets.
On the other hand, Ben Habib, another rightwing critic of Nigel Farage and former co-leader of Reform - now the leader of Advance UK - says that Harborne “controlled” the Brexit Party through Farage, and both he and Farage “anointed” Boris Johnson in the 2019 general election “It stank,” Habib declared - an example of “when politicians dance to the tune of their donors”.
Conflict
Farage has been accused of a “conflict of interest”. He took millions in a “personal gift” from Harborne, that just months before pledging to slash tax and regulation on the digital assets industry if he becomes prime minister. Quid pro quo? Thus last year Reform published a draft bill in May 2025, which promised to deregulate the crypto industry, create a state-owned bitcoin reserve, as well as cutting capital gains tax on its transactions.
Indeed, Farage has eagerly courted crypto voters and financiers, positioning himself as their “champion” in an echo of Donald Trump’s enthusiasm for the digital assets sector - Farage has a personal stake in crypto after investing nearly £280,000 in the London-listed Stack BTC, whose purpose is to buy and hold bitcoin. Not everyone is impressed. Dan Neidle, founder of Tax Policy Associates - which exists to “expose avoidance and abuse” and “propose practical reforms”6 - has said Reform’s proposal to cut capital gains tax on crypto would not make the UK “particularly competitive”, given the fact that many countries did not have any levy on that asset class. He also wonders why any government would want to make crypto more attractive than other investments, such as equities.7
Regardless of all that, the Reform leader has presumably broken House of Commons rules - approved in 2022 - over Harborne’s donation, which explicitly states that “new members must register all their current financial interests, and any registrable benefits (other than earnings) received in the 12 months before their election within one month of their election”, further adding: “Both the possible motive of the giver and the use to which the gift is to be put should be considered. If there is any doubt, the benefit should be registered.”
Naturally, a Reform spokesperson has stated any suggestion that policy development “is connected to or influenced by individual donors is false”, further insisting that Harborne’s “unconditional gift” to Farage and his decision to stand as an MP, or Reform’s policy stance of the crypto industry, are “entirely unrelated” - the money was given purely to ensure Farage’s personal safety as a citizen rather than a politician. Good luck in finding anyone who really believes that.
As it stands, Nigel Farage has been referred to parliament’s standards watchdog by the Conservative Party, with Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, believing that Farage had been “obliged” to declare the gift. Kemi Badenoch got in on the Farage-bashing act too, saying on the BBC’s Today programme that there was something “fishy” about Farage’s undisclosed £5 million donation - “What was that money for? Who’s bought him?” She sternly rebuked the Reform leader as “not someone who plays by the rules”- as opposed to some like herself, of course, as a virtuous Tory Party leader.
As a result of his referral to the parliamentary standards commissioner for investigation, Farage could face censure - perhaps even suspension from parliament and a possible by-election in his seat, if they decide to come down on him like a ton of bricks.
But that is very unlikely to happen, and it is sheer hypocrisy for a Conservative leader to complain about someone receiving generous donations from a wealthy business person - the Tories have been perfectly happy to accept such money in the past, while never missing an opportunity to attack the Labour Party for receiving trade union cash, which is paltry by comparison.
No, it is just sour grapes on the part of the Tories, because big business and the very wealthy are not automatically backing the Conservative Party any more - they can now go elsewhere to get their agenda pushed!