Tether shareholder and billionaire tycoon Christopher Harborne gave Nigel Farage £5 million ($6.7 million) shortly before the Reform UK leader backtracked on claims he wasn’t planning to stand in the UK’s 2024 general election.
Farage declared in May 2024 that he wouldn’t be running to become an MP. However, by July of that same year, he announced that he’d be standing in the constituency of Clacton.
The Guardian revealed that at some point before his seemingly spur of the moment election bid, Farage received the multi-million-dollar gift from Harborne.
The gift was kept under wraps and not publicly disclosed — which it didn’t legally have to be, as it was technically given before Farage announced his bid for Parliament.
Farage pre-emptively attacked The Guardian’s report via an article in The Telegraph that was published hours before, titled “Farage: My home was firebombed.”
Read more: UK’s Liberal Democrats want inquiry into Nigel Farage’s £2M bitcoin purchase
In this piece, Farage claims that Harborne gave him the money “so that I would be safe and secure for the rest of my life.”
He notes that Harborne, “is an ardent supporter who is deeply concerned for my safety,” and bemoaned the lack of security funding from the government.
Farage also revealed that he was a victim of an arson attack on his home last year.
“I would rather not be discussing any of this,” he told The Telegraph, but I am having to because someone has got hold of material about my private finances, which is outrageous, and which I believe was illegally obtained.”
Reform UK pushed piece back so Farage could spin
When The Guardian approached Farage and Harborne, neither would respond with a comment. Instead, Reform UK lawyers asked for The Guardian’s piece to be pushed back a few days.
The Guardian agreed and gave a deadline for today. The Telegraph published its Farage interview before this deadline.
Harborne is a wealthy crypto tycoon who also has investments in aviation and defence firms, and has donated over £22 million ($29 million) to Reform UK over the past seven years. He also has significant holdings in Ethereum and Tether.
Read more: Christopher Harborne, Bitfinex shareholder, sues Wall Street Journal
The Guardian has questioned Farage’s love for crypto, and whether it corresponds with Harborne’s donations to the UK’s Conservative and Brexit parties in 2019.
In one instance in 2025, Farage promoted Tether on a UK talk show one month after Harborne donated £9 million to Reform UK.
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