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Nigel Farage has claimed Reform UK is up against a “complainant society”, as he faces ongoing scrutiny about funding both he and his party have received.
The Reform leader, speaking to the BBC ahead of his party’s conference in Birmingham this week, suggested he believed a “whole ecosystem” of the establishment was out to attack the “new kids on the block”.
Mr Farage faced persistent questions over the summer about the party’s finances, as well as £5 million he received from a cryptocurrency billionaire ahead of the last general election.
He indicated to the BBC he will soon be interviewed by Parliament’s standards commissioner, who is investigating whether Mr Farage should have declared the £5 million from Thailand-based billionaire Christopher Harborne in his register of MP interests, because the sum was given shortly before the 2024 election.
Mr Farage insisted he had taken “strong legal advice” on it, adding: “This was purely personal. It was given, no strings attached.
“It was unconditional, but the intention was very clear that I am someone who the state, despite being asked repeatedly to help, just refuses to do so, and I’m going to need a degree of security for as long as I live, it’s just as simple as that.
“It wasn’t a political donation. It wasn’t used to fight a campaign or anything like that.
“So I think my judgment was right. Anyway, if they find me guilty, they find me guilty of not filling in a piece of paper.”
Mr Farage was also questioned about support provided by George Cottrell, a long-term ally who was once convicted of fraud in the US.
Mr Cottrell reportedly recruited and paid three staff to work on Mr Farage’s social media before the general election, and has continued to allow him to use a five-storey Georgian property he rented near Buckingham Palace.
His mother Fiona Cottrell has meanwhile donated large sums to Reform on several occasions, with several media outlets having questioned the ultimate source of the cash.
Mr Farage told the BBC he believed the money was Mrs Cottrell’s, telling the broadcaster: “I absolutely believe her when she says it was her money.”
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