The UK Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg, has decided to open an investigation into the five million pounds (about 5.7 million euros) that the popular far-right politician Nigel Farage accepted in early 2024 from the British-Thai cryptocurrency entrepreneur and investor Christopher Harborne.
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If the process concludes that Farage breached the MPs’ code of conduct by not declaring the donation in the House’s register of interests, his parliamentary career could abruptly end, which would mean for him — besides losing his public salary — the loss of a fundamental institutional platform to convey his messages.
Farage’s voters have long been willing to forgive his misdeeds, whether financial or personal, as they once did with Conservative leader Boris Johnson. But the Conservative Party, which sees every day how the far-right politician and his party, Reform UK, are taking more and more votes from them, has decided to act. Their parliamentary group demanded Greenberg investigate the donation, suspecting that ethical rules may have been violated.
The House of Commons Code states that all MPs “must register their financial income and other benefits received in the twelve months prior to their election.” Farage was elected MP in the July 2024 elections, and the donation had been made earlier that same year.
Both the politician and Reform UK have defended their innocence. They claim that when he received the money he was not yet an MP, and that the donation was solely intended to guarantee his personal security and that of his family, who according to him have been threatened for years. That was, he has assured, the reason he resisted running again. The gift, according to that version, would be an attempt by Harborne to make him change his mind.
The billionaire, who lives in Thailand under the name Chakrit Sakunkrit after obtaining Thai citizenship in 2011, has donated more than 25 million euros to Farage’s various parties over the years. He is a reserved person who has never bothered to explain the reasons for his financial support to the far-right politician, since the times when he was the main driver of Brexit (the UK’s exit from the EU). Harborne is obsessed with nutrition, those who know him say, and with the pursuit of longevity.
But the parliamentary code states that, even in the case of personal gifts, “the donor’s motive or the use given to the donation must be taken into consideration.” And in case of doubt, it adds, they must be included in the House’s register of interests. Farage did not do so.
The consequences
Greenberg already allowed Farage to correct a previous omission. He had received income of more than 440,000 euros in January 2024 that he did not include in the register, but the commissioner admitted it was an involuntary fault and allowed the politician to amend the error without any sanction.
Harborne’s donation, however, appears more suspicious. And after the immense defeat that Reform UK inflicted on both Conservatives and Labour in the recent municipal elections in England and regional elections in Scotland and Wales on May 7, their rivals will not let him easily escape this new scandal.
Even if the parliamentary commissioner finally decided to impose on Farage a minimum suspension of ten days, it would be enough to open a recall process for the seat in Clacton-on-Sea, the constituency the far-right leader chose in 2024 to run for Parliament.
The voters of that locality could request, within six weeks, a new election to replace the sanctioned MP. The signatures of 10% of the voters on the electoral roll are enough to trigger what in British political jargon is called a by-election, or partial election.
Everything is still very hypothetical, but not impossible. Farage’s growing popularity and strength is directly proportional to his political rivals’ desire to stop him at all costs.
