Potential Consequences and Public Scrutiny

This is the Guardian today Nigel Farage's five million pound headache Be you didn't just say, how can I provide these investments? you How do I holistically provide everything? How do I bring in the legal, the accounting, all this? and do it at a price point. no one else is doing it. Learn more about how we approach wealth mananagement at creativeplanning d. com slash integrated Nowadays we're told everybody needs a side hustle And Nigel Farage seems to have quite a few He already makes almost one hundred thousand pounds through his MP salary On top of that Since becoming the member for Clactton He's been paid seven hundred thousand pounds to present his own show on GB News I'll be here every night, taking on the tough stories of the day, taking on stories that other broadcasters actually don't want to touch four hundred thousand pounds to advertise gold bullion. are now getting involved buying UK gold coins. Remember tax free and hundreds of thousands more sending personal messages on Co. including to convicted criminals This message is to pay tribute to Ian Watkins, a good man, a really good guy. who was very much in contact with me loved his children and would be sorely sorely messed by them forever. And now it turns out that in twenty twenty four, he took a five million pound gift from elusive, Thaie based crypto billionaire Christopher Harbournen declaring it to Parliament At first Farash said the money was gifted to pay for his personal security This money is the only way look after myself and protect myself the rest of my life But then, as he came under pressure He seemed to change his mind This was given to me unconditional basis completely unconditional basis, but frankly It was given as a reward for campaign over Brexit for twenty seven years. And he's currently facing a parliamentary inquiry that could see him forced to fight for his seat. From the Guardian, I'm Annie Kelly Today in focus. where Farage got his millions and what he did with them Anna Isaac, you are the Guardian City Eeditor. Welcome to Today in Focus. You broke this story about a five million pound gift that Nigel Farage received from a crypto billionaire. What did you discover? I found out that Nigel Farage had, just weeks before he decided to run as an MP in the twenty twenty four general election and become leader of reform, that he had accepted a five million pound gift from Christopher Harbourne, who's a cryptocurrency billionaire. Give us some difficult questions about your own funding. five mion. about any other time we like He was one of the biggest donors to the Brexit partarty. He's had a long relationship with Nigel Farage as a donor He made this gift and he has also reformed UK's biggest single donor, accounting for around two thirds of overall donations to the party. so he's often termed a mega donor. Can you just describe what the rules are about accepting a gift like this? How tightly is this controlled? When MPs become membbs of Parliament, they are given a copy of the code of coonduct. These are the rules that every MP has to adhere to. and in that code of conduct, it says that you need to declare benefits and financial interests So within twenty eight days of becoming an MP, you need to go back through your books through your finances for twelve months beforehand and you're meant to declare any benefits or outside earnings that you had in that period. The wrinkle here is that reforms say, well, hang on, this was a personal gift. And it's true that some personal gifts don't have to be declared. But within the rules, it does say if there is any doubt. to be recorded. So now that the gif has come to light, we're getting more scrutiny as to that question. shouldhould it have been reported Yeah, and I mean, it's five million pounds We're talking about a massive amount of money here It is a life changing sum of money, there's no question. It's also the case that while some MPs have had gifts at different times of money. so for example, Lord Bamford of the JCB Empire, he helped Boris Johnson towards the cost of his wedding to his wife Carri. But that was declared. That was within the MP's reggister of interestnterests. And that would definitely be regarded as personal because it was his wedding. So it is interesting that a different approach has been taken in this instance Why is it so important that a gift like this would be declared? What kind of scrutiny would that have opened him up to that he managed to avoid by not declaring it in the first place Speaking in general terms about the British system, it is built on the principle of transparency. That's why they're called declarations. The assumption is not a default. You are doing the wrong thing or anything like that. The notion is that transparency shows everybody what's happening. They can literally see what interests might influence or be seen to influence a member of Parliament. That's the spirit of the rules When you went to Nigel Farage with the story, he kind of picked you to the post with this story, didn't he? He admitted to receiving the gift in an interview with a telegraph after you'd asked for this comment, but before you published your article. What did he say in that article to the teelegraph? And know why would he have done that to use jargon, which which isn't a great thing to do, but this' kind of called jumping the story or trying to spike it, which basically means that they're trying to undermine the reporting. What happened is we went to Reform UK, as you would expect, as is good practice and we gave them twenty four hours to what is really quite a simple preise which is did you receive five million pounds from this person? And we named the person and we asked and we set out a time frrame. And they said, lookook, we need more time. You've come to the wrong person. They said the director of commommunications was the wrong person. So then we said, okay, you can give us more time. The legal team at reform said they needed more time. we said, oK, we'll give you another twenty four hours. But rather than using that twenty four hours to sort of work out what's happening and get back to us They chose to brief the Daily teelegraph on the story and that meant that they were sort of from reading it, they looked like they were trying to really frame the gift in the context that they laid out, which was it was a gift for security purposes. Nigel Farage said this was to keep me safe and secure for the rest of my life. That's why I was given the money. How long's the five million going to last, Mr. Farraage hfully till I'm dead Right And then we did see he initially said it was for his security, but the story did seem to change. Farage then said in an interview to the suun that the money was a reward for his twenty seven years campaigning on Brexit is unusual My mate lent me a tenner To get a couple of bids five million quid, it's a hell of a lm. I know and it's found unusual for someone to give up twenty seven years of their life to campaign for something Right now, there are news reports that show that Farage bought a one point four million pound house shortly after the gift was received. So what do we know about what that money was used for We're still trying to piece that together. Alie Fortescue at Sky has had this story, new story that says Well, he had a one point four million house purchase go through cash and that went through supposedly after this gift was made The five million pound donation by Christopher Harborne was first reported in the Guardian early twenty twenty four. may twenty twenty four, that's when this property was bought. that is obviously raising a lot of questions. Reformuse's c's position is that the offer was already made and accepted and proof of funds was offered before the gift was made. But it's starting to sort of to this series of questions which is why did you need the money? What was the money for? Have you received any other gifts? And we've put many of those questions to Reform UK and had little or no response Let's zoom out a bit So we recently spoke to the Guardian' investigations correspondent, Tom Burgess about Christopher Harbourne himself and his bank rolling afarrage. Can you talk a little bit about Harbourne? What do we know about him Christopher Harorann is a really interesting, if slightly enigmatic figure. He's got an absolute passion for aviation. He runs aviation related companies. We know that he lives in Thailand and that he has a longstanding relationship with Nigel Farage and we now know that he accounts for two thirds of donations to reform UK. He's given about twelve million do in total That's not including the five million gift. He is one of the most significant political donors in modern British history. This is a really important man. He's a billionaire, but one who has been UK born is a UK political donor. but he's got this really interesting life in Thailand. He goes by a different name there. It's called Chakritakkunkrit He gave an extremely rare interview to the telegraph, actually as part of this effort to sort of get ahead of our story about the five million gift. said he was really determined to get money into British politics. He said that it was a personal gift for an unconditional gift for Faraj's security But he also said separately that whatever efforts there might be, I will find a way to make sure that I get money into British politics, kind of whatever happens. Bearing in mind there's legislation that's currently passing through Parliament trying to limit the amount that people who are overseas voters, so they live overseas, but they are allowed to donate to UK parties. So it's still considered in some ways a foreign donation efforts to limit those amounts of money and also to limit the amount of money it can be given in crypto Is there a limit at the moment on how much individuals can give to particular political parties in our system? Or could it be kind of the sky' the limit that you could just keep on giving and giving with no checks or balances at all? So at the moment in the UK, there is no limit on the amount that an individual can give to a political party But there are overall spending limits. There are spending limits by constituencies and there are spending limits per year per political party. So it's not a complete free for all, but it's definitely fair to say that there are issues within a system that means one person can be a very dominant donor, so to speak. And in that telegraph article that you mentioned, as you said, really rare to hear him talking to the press. Did he give any kind of indication about what his personal motivations might be for supporting Farage? I believe that he mentioned the milkshake incident where Nigel Farage was attacked with a milkshake with the milkshake incident. On one level, it could be seen as slightly comic. On another, at no point are we suggesting that security of MPs or anything like that isn't a really serious issue We know they face threats. We've seen David Almis and we've seen Joe Cox both in recent years MPs who have been killed in the course of their duties as an MP. So that is a really, really serious issue. What's different though is Christopher Harin's wider motivations for his political donations. In describing his motivation, he said he wants to take Britain back to the early days of Thatcher He is suggesting that he thought that was a time when we had a much more dynamic economy. We were faring better as a country. and he sees it as a fundamental moral responsibility to try and get us back to that point. But that was separate to his explanation for why he gave the five million pounds, which he said was for security reasons I'm right in saying that as of yet, no evidence has been provided to the public that the money was actually spent on security. But more generally, reform does seem to be a bit of a magnet for crypto billionaires. Has there been any questions raised in that sense about Nidl Farage's support of cryptocurrency They have never accepted that there's a connection between those two things, I should say, for reform UK. That said, they are hugely interested, supportive of cryptocurrency, lew over here pleasebody out of your seats this man aound of applause to started for us for join us. Nigel Farage has himself appeared on adverts for a crypto company that is now run by former Chancellor Quasiquartang, andform are very clear that they want to take a very open approach to regulating cryptocurrency in the UK So there's certainly an interesting alignment of interest there, potentially, even if it isn't you know something we could say it's a pay for play And Annna, you mentioned before, there are a number of outstanding questions that Nigel Farage has yet to answer about this gift There's a whole range of questions, and I think this new story from Sky is drawing attention because some of those questions are unanswered. For example, there's been a lot of scrutiny of the purchase of a property in Clackton on Sa, which is, of course, Nigel Farge's constituency. His partner bought a property there for eight hundred eighty five thousand pounds. He has said on the record that he didn't give her the money for that. But in a recent interview for LMont, a French newspaper, she has said that she didn't pay for all of the property using an inheritance from her family, which suggests it wasn't family money whichich is slightly different from what Farja said, which is, you know, she's a really wealthy family. so of course she was able to buy this property. So I think it would be really interesting to establish where the money for that purchase came from in light of the five million pound gift. What we haven't had answered by reform alongside those questions about the Clact and property are also whether or not any gifts from any donors were made to any other senior figures in reform or MPs for reform. We don't know the answer to that question. I would suggest the public interest and public debate that's now happening over the five million that suggests it would be in the public interest to find out more about that, whether or not there are other gifts at play. And have reform said anything about that? I presume you've asked them those questions directly. We put those questions to them directly. They chose not to reply to our list of questions Have they chosen to reply to any questions about whether this is the only gift that Nigel Farage has received from Christopher Harbourne as well They have touched upon it, they haven't answered it fully. So asked about a time period from twenty sixteen to twenty twenty four They said the five million was the only pound gift, but they haven't answered whether or not there could have been any other gifts from twenty twenty four onwards. or before twenty sixteen. And it's really important that we asked about all senior figures and MPs within reform All donors, not just Christopher Harbourne, all donors. And we don't know the answer to that question And the revelation about this five million pound gift, which came from your story published ahead of our recent local elections, where as we know, reform did really well. Last Wednesday, the Parliamentary Standards watchatchdog announced that it would be opening an inquiry into the gift Could you just outline what the actual process will be What happens is that people in parties can make requests to the Commissioner for parliamentary standards and ask them to look into something. That's what happened here. So the Conservative partarty chair Kevin Hollingrke asked the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to look into this gift and whether or not it ought to have been declared. The parliamentary authorities have replied. Theyve said they are going to look into it. They haven't put a timeline on that, but what they have said is they're looking at it using this frame of MPs need to be conscientious. That's close to the language used, which is that MPs need to be really, really careful in terms of how they approach declarations and how they use that. So I think it's really testing whether or not that bar of being really, really careful and thoughtful has been met. But there's also the possibility of a second probe by the Electoral Commission, which has different powers to Parliament and a different remit. It looks more broadly at party funding rather than individual MPs We're waiting here to see whether or not they will also open their own inquiry. I mean, this sounds pretty serious, but what Would the consequences be of both of those processes for Nigel Farage if he is found to be in breach of this code of conduct Because I know the approach that the Parliamentary standards Commissioner are taking, I can speak better to that one, which is there's some really serious measures they can take. They have quite a big menu, but the most serious one, which you've seen reports addressing is that if he's found to have made a really, really big mistake, he could face a ten day suspension from Parliament. and the significance of that is that a suspension of that long could be sufficient to trigger a bialection in his constituency. So that would be a very big deal if that would happen How likely is that I mean, that this inquiry will actually lead to something more than a slap on the wrist or a cause for no concern. Are there any other precedents for something like this taking place I'm not aware of one. specifically speaks to a gift of this size or specifically to a gift like this. What might be important is if it is found that he ought to have declared it It won't be the first time that he has had to correct the register, so to speak. He said it was an oversight, but he didn't declare some other donations previously. in the instance of this gift, if it's found that he should have declared it, then there certainly will be some form of reprimand, But you're absolutely right that it could run the whole range of responses through to yes, effectively a slap on the wrist and I'm very sorry andop on the register right through to something, you know, gravely serious like a byia election Even if he was confident in winning that by election, it would be really problematic for him, wouldn't it to have to go through that very public process of fighting for his seat again contesting a seat is a grueling really demanding process. would also potentially be a distraction from other plans. reform UK are already looking ahead to next year when there will be more local elections, and that's where they want to concentrate their attention and resources. And so it would certainly be a distraction from everything else that he is trying to achieve And this electoral commission Would that be any different in terms of looking into how this gift was spent or used or is that again more of a kind of bureaucratic process part of the point of the electoral Commission, it has a lot of responsibilities, obviously towards UK elections, but that's a really broad brief. One of them is to monitor money that is spent on campaigning in politics in the UK. And so that will look a bit at the question Was this money used for security? Was it used for any party political purposes? And so that's what that probe could potentially look at if they decide to open one It might not be a great look taking five million pounds from a crypto king. For investors at the highest level of sophistication, those with strong advisory support, the natural outcome is two distinct portfolios. onene public, one private. Each plays a different role in the overall strategy. Uncover new investment opportunities for you at creativeplanning dot com slash new Today, we'll attempt a feat once thought impossible, overcoming high interest credit card debt. It requires merely one thing, a soFI personal loan. With it, you could save big on interest charges by consolidating into one low fixed rate monthly payment. Defy high interest debt with a soOFI personal loan. Visit soopFi dot com slash st to learn more Loans originated by SFi Bank NA member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply NLS six nine six eight nine one One of Nigel Farage' selling points is that peopleeople feel like, you know, he's not like other politicians. He's always talking about not being part of the political elite, but here he is accepting millions and millions of pounds from a crypto billionaire. But how have reform supporters reacted to your reporting Do you think it's made any kind of dent in there appval of him I've spoken to quite a few people who are involved with reform one way or another. That's from sort of a few grassroot members right through to a very senior member of Reform. and they said that they did think it would have been, you know that Nigel's a rock star, they said. They do think it might have been better if he had declared it. Some of the grassroots activists I spoke to, it's a mix of views. So some completely brush it off And they said, Well, of course you need security, nothing to see here And some who feel that it is just so much money. They wish he'd set up a different arrangement perhaps where he sort of accepted someone else providing him with security services that they handled it rather than him being given a bit of cash. It's definitely mixed views among the members of reform I've spoken to and certainly some sort of head scratching within some of the upper echelons y Has Nigel Farge said anything about how it's going down with his supporters or even his constituents in Clackton has suggested that the view of his constituents in Clackton in an interview that he did with The Sun with Harry Cole, who's its editor at large, he suggested the view of people in Clactton will be, you know, good on me. What what people collaxs and say goodood luck, you mate. Yeah They care if you're a crook. which I'm not and never have been But the fact that I made a few quid doing things, just doesn't worry people at all It's interesting, isn't it? the way that Nitl Farage is able to weather these kind of storms compared to other politicians? Kist Armmer facing intense criticism at the beginning of his premiership for being seen to take freebies, Taylor Swift concerts, his wife taking designer clothing, multiple pairs of glasses, costing thousands. he ended up paying back some of that. Does it seem to you that Farage is facing the same levels of scrutiny I think that scrutiny is starting to build I think because he has not yet held the highest office. He hasn't received yet the same level of scrutiny. but I think it's starting to build because it's very clear that as a political electoral force, reform is really really significant in this country right now. I think one of the reasons that Labour came under so much pressure over some of those gifts as a newly formed government is that there is a sense amongst the public They want to know what money you get, why you're getting it, and what it's for. And this kind of reporting must be really arduous and tough and you must face quite a bit of backlash when you publish your stories. Do you see this as being really firmly in the public interest? I absolutely do. I have a long track record of looking into those lines between personal finances and political finances. and the importance of making sure the public is in the no when there could be any perceived or actual conflict of interest. I really see this as another story that line that says You know Yes, these are potentially someone's personal finances, but they are pertinent to examining whether or not there could be a conflict of interest here I've done it for people on all kinds of parts of the political spectrum.