The revelation that a £5m gift to Nigel Farage by a cryptocurrency billionaire was reported to the National Crime Agency by bankers concerned it may have been laundered money, has been described as “astonishing and deeply serious”.
Responding to the Guardian story, Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour party, also called on Farage to “come clean and cooperate” with the NCA.
The fresh pressure on the Reform UK leader came the day after he attempted to shrug off the pressure over his financial affairs by resigning his seat in Clacton-on-Sea, to stand in the resulting byelection. All of the other main parties have said they will boycott the contest.
However, Farage faces fresh questions about the gift in relation to the NCA, which comes after Guardian first revealed in April that Farage had been given £5m by the Thailand-based Reform donor Christopher Harborne.
Turley said: “This is an astonishing and deeply serious allegation. The circumstances surrounding Nigel Farage’s secret £5 million ‘gift’ absolutely stink.
“Farage is engulfed in a major sleaze scandal and his attempts to distract won’t wash with the public. He’s desperately flailing and can’t get his story straight, and working people will conclude he’s just in it for himself.
“The Reform leader must finally come clean. He should publicly commit to cooperating with the National Crime Agency, fess up to the parliamentary watchdog over his finances, and face the consequences.”
Farage had been given a deadline of 1pm on Tuesday to respond to the Guardian before it reported that bankers had contacted the NCA about the gift. He gave a video address at 2pm announcing he would force a byelection in Clacton.
The Guardian understands bankers raised a suspicious activity report (SAR) over the gift from Harborne on 16 May 2024 with the NCA. A SAR is not proof of wrongdoing, rather it is an invitation for the agency to examine the transaction to decide whether there are grounds to investigate it further. It is not the same as a crime report.
In correspondence with the Guardian, Harborne’s lawyers have claimed Farage received the money on 5 April 2024. They did not provide a substantive response to detailed questions about the gift and a SAR to the NCA.
In one of the letters sent to the Guardian, Farage said he did not know about the SAR. He added: “I have no reason to doubt the ultimate source of the money.”
Farage has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
On Wednesday morning, Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, accused the NCA of leaking his financial information to the Guardian.
“You know, I’ve got the National Crime Agency who have leaked to the Guardian copies of my company bank statements, individual bank transfers, private conversations between my bankers and myself,” he told Times Radio.
“We’ve literally got criminality going on at the most senior crime agency in the land, which I’m obviously pretty upset about.”
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Farage has given differing explanations about what the money from Harborne was for, and has insisted he had no obligation to disclose it because he was not a politician at the time, claiming it had no bearing on his decision to stand in the 2024 general election.
According to financial industry sources, Farage received at least some of the £5m after he had announced on 23 May 2024 that he was not going to stand for parliament, saying it was “not the right time for me”. The balance of the money was received shortly before he changed his mind and announced on 3 June 2024 that he would run for the seat of Clacton, in Essex.
Asked about the SAR, Farage repeated his claim that the information about the £5m had been obtained illegally. He said he was not aware of any “discussions” with the NCA about transactions he had been involved with.
A spokesperson for the NCA said: “The NCA does not confirm or deny the receipt of SARs, nor comment on how any SAR is used. SARs are confidential and breaching that confidentiality risks committing a tipping-off offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.”
Reform UK has been approached for a response to Turley’s comments.
Meanwhile the Clacton byelection appears to be set to go ahead despite calls by the Liberal Democrats for it to be delayed until after a parliamentary investigation into the £5m gift is completed.
The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, said: “The government can decide whether [Farage is] allowed to resign and whether there is this unnecessary byelection, and whether he escapes this investigation.”
However, the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, told the BBC’s Today programme: “My expectation is that there will be a a total waste of a time byelection because one man wants to duck and dive around the rules.”
