Nigel Farage has been referred to the Parliamentary standards watchdog after he admitted he received a £5m donation from a Thai-based billionaire to bolster his security.
The Reform UK leader said he received a seven-figure donation from Christopher Harborne, a British national living in Thailand who helped bankroll Brexit, back in 2024.
Mr Farage has been criticised for failing to declare the latest donation, which was given weeks before he declared he would run in the general election.
The Conservatives have now referred him to the Parliamentary standards watchdog over the gift, which they say should have been reported to the Commons previously.
“This money was given to me so that I would be safe and secure for the rest of my life,” Mr Farage told The Telegraph.
“I have 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.
“I’m very much on my own and will be for the rest of my life, and I have to face up to that grim reality.
“Christopher is an ardent supporter who is deeply concerned for my safety.”
Mr Harborne’s donations to Mr Farage and Reform UK have been a subject of particular controversy for the party, after he gifted it a record-breaking £9 million donation last August and a further £3m this year.
Mr Harborne’s separate £5m gift for Mr Farage was not subject to tax or declared to the parliamentary authorities as it did not count as a political donation, according to The Telegraph.
But Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley described the donation as “the latest alarming example of Farage and his MPs believing there is one rule for them and another for everyone else”.
Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said Mr Farage would have been obliged to report all political donations and gifts he had received during the previous 12 months as a new MP.
“He did not,” he said. “The Conservatives are therefore today referring Nigel Farage to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.”
The Reform leader is regularly heckled while out in public, and famously had a milkshake thrown on him while campaigning in his now-constituency Clacton-on-Sea ahead of the general election in 2024.
He also revealed he had been the victim of a firebomb attack on his home in 2025, and told The Telegraph: “It was an outright arson attempt.”
He said that while police investigated the attack, a suspect had yet to be identified.
He added: “I wasn’t at home at the time, but when I came back and opened the door, I found the damage. Luckily, it had burned itself out in the porch, and we think maybe the perpetrators were disturbed in the act. The police were all over it. They did their best, but there are no suspects so far.”
MP safety has been a highly debated topic in recent years, with calls for action and further security growing following the murder of Jo Cox in 2016 and Sir David Amess in 2021.
“I’m acutely aware of the love for me, but equally the levels of antipathy that exist,” Mr Farage said.
“Sometimes things happen when there are cameras there, but there are plenty of times when things don’t make the news, like pints of beer being thrown over me or the attack on my home.
“I also had to write off a car once because it was attacked by protesters when I was in it.
“I would rather not be discussing any of this, 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.”
Mr Farage also described the online threats he received, claiming he had reported them to the police but received no response.
He added: “There is also the online threat, with people encouraging the use of violence against me, which we have reported to the police several times with no response that I can discern whatsoever and the pretty much point-blank refusal of the British state to help me.”
The Independent has contacted Reform UK for a comment.
The Guardian reported that Mr Farage received the gift from the billionaire weeks before announcing he would run for Clacton-on-Sea, and was therefore not required to declare it to the Electoral Commission.
But Reform disputed this account, saying Mr Farage announced he would not stand as an MP after receiving the money, then later changed his mind.
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