Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said he would have considered postponing his September 2025 meeting with Nigel Farage if Farage’s £5m gift from crypto investor Christopher Harborne had been under investigation at the time. Bailey said he does not regret holding the meeting, which focused on cryptocurrency regulation, but described the later scrutiny over the donation as a material factor that could have affected the decision. The remarks matter because they raise further questions about political lobbying, transparency and how senior public officials engage with party leaders backed by major financial donors.

Bailey said the Bank only later learned facts that are now the subject of a parliamentary inquiry into the undisclosed gift, revealed by the Guardian in April 2026. Harborne, a Thailand-based billionaire estimated to be worth about £18bn, has provided roughly two-thirds of Reform UK’s funding and reportedly earns up to £1bn a year from his stake in Tether, a leading stablecoin issuer. Farage said he used the meeting to oppose a state-backed digital currency and to challenge proposed limits on individual stablecoin holdings; Bailey said the exchange was polite, denied being swayed, and defended the Bank’s eventual rule changes as practical rather than political.