Fresh questions have been raised over Nigel Farage's explanation for why he did not declare a £5million "gift" from crypto-currency entrepreneur Christopher Harborne. The Reform leader received the money in April 2024 but it remained secret until this year, and he argues he had no obligation to register it with Commons authorities because it was a personal gift given while he was not politically active. The matter matters because it goes to the transparency of a major donation to a leading political figure, and it surfaces as Farage has just triggered a by-election in his own seat.

Farage says the gift came two months before he announced he would stand at the snap general election, but a growing body of evidence suggests he had already decided on a comeback by then. A new biography records that he admitted in December 2023 he "had a big decision to make" after commissioning focus-group research following his stint on I'm A Celebrity, while ally Richard Tice "half-expected" an immediate return and Farage told ITV "never say never". In January 2024 former donor Arron Banks commissioned a survey showing Farage could win Clacton for Reform, and in April 2024 — the same month the donation arrived — he is said to have privately agreed at a London lunch to return to frontline politics.