Nigel Farage paid for £1.4m property with I’m A Celebrity money, Reform UK says

Nigel Farage bought a £1.4 million property using money he received for taking part in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Reform UK has said.

Sky News reported on Thursday that the party leader had paid for the house in 2024, shortly after receiving a £5 million personal gift from billionaire donor Christopher Harborne.

Property records show the purchase of the property was completed in May that year, weeks before he decided to stand in the general election, according to the broadcaster.

Mr Farage has insisted there is no connection between the gift from Thailand-based crypto-investor Mr Harborne, who has donated millions to Reform UK, and the property purchase.

The party said on Friday that the house was paid for using funds received for participating in ITV’s I’m A Celebrity reality series, which he did in November 2023.

A Reform UK spokesman said: “The relevant chronology is straightforward. The offer and purchase process for the property commenced before the gift.

“Mr Farage had already passed proof of funds and the relevant checks before receiving the gift. The purchase was therefore already proceeding independently of it.”

Commenting on X, Mr Farage said on Thursday: “This is fake news by the establishment media who will do anything to hurt Reform as we challenge their cosy consensus.

“I had passed proof-of-funds and the relevant checks before receiving the gift.

“Sky News did not publish that part of our statement despite knowing the truth.”

The Press Association understands Reform UK is considering legal options in response to the report.

Mr Farage is facing an investigation by the Commons sleaze watchdog over the undeclared £5 million gift, over which he had previously said there is “no case to answer”.

The Reform UK leader has said the gift was not connected to his political activity and was needed to pay for private security for the rest of his life.

PA understands Mr Farage was referred to Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg, and the watchdog has opened an investigation under rule five of the MPs’ code of conduct.

This rule specifies new MPs should register relevant financial interests received in the 12 months before their election within one month of entering Parliament.

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In an interview with The Sun newspaper, Mr Farage said the gift was given on a “completely unconditional basis”, adding: “Frankly, it was given as a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years.”

When it was suggested the gift may have influenced his decision to return to public life, Mr Farage said: “I can’t be bought by anybody, not even Elon Musk.”

Reports had previously suggested a donation to Reform could be made through a branch of Mr Musk’s X company, though relations between Mr Farage and the tech billionaire have cooled since.

Mr Farage said in his interview: “He wanted to give us a load of money if I said certain things publicly and I refused.

“I didn’t do it so I made an enemy of Elon Musk, but that shows you I am my own man. I make my own mind up.”

In 2018, Mr Farage was reportedly docked £35,000 – half his monthly salary as a member of the European Parliament – following claims he misspent EU funds.

He was said to have been investigated over accusations his office assistant had not been working on EU matters, the BBC said.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, meanwhile, said Mr Farage should “come clean” about what the money from Mr Harborne was for.

“We all know that if Keir Starmer had received a £5 million in cash as a gift and didn’t tell anyone, Nigel Farage would be using this to attack him every single day,” Mrs Badenoch told the Press Association at an electrical engineering manufacturer in Saffron Walden.

She added: “£5 million is a fortune, it would take a nurse about 128 years to earn that kind of money.

“What was it for? We don’t want our politics to be bought in this country. The transparency rules are there for a reason.”

The Venn diagram of people who watch I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here and people who vote Reform is a circle.

I don’t see the relevance of what he bought with it. The relevance is why it wasn’t declared and what does a foreign businessman want in exchange from a man who is likely to be our future Prime Minister.

Of course, even if their chronology is correct, it’s impossible that Harborne told Farage in advance of his generosity, or that Farage was told that if certain services were provided he’d be paid for those services.

Saying something is not proof of something.

Let’s remind ourselves. Harborne has given nearly £20m to Reform and Farage. He wants Farage in No 10, and without him they don’t have the finances to do it.

Quid pro quo.

Oh, yet another different explanation.

A foreign billionaire gave him £5 million. He kept it hidden.

UKIP/Reform is the **best** funded party ever. It’s a private company. The money comes from foreign billionaires.

Interesting how he can be paid £1.5millon to be on the show and still have £1.4million left after tax to buy the house.

Not lying again are we Reform? 

What is fun about Reform is that you get a new story every day.

So he didn’t pay tax on his I’m a Celeb money? Or was that just a donation too?

This is what happens when everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie it eventually catches up with you and you forget what stage of the lie you are in.
I have a good friend he’s Indian that migrated here 2000’s and he’s absolutely deep into reform telling me they are the only people that can save the UK. I am baffled because he will be one of first on the plane getting shipped out if reform can implement the only policy they care about.

His supporters won’t care. Only other parties and political figures deserve scrutiny and being held to the highest standards. Not poor Mr Farage.

There is not a chance in hell that this is the truth….

Also, if he’s using his own money (that he got from the show) then that brings up a whole load more questions about taxes

The money he got from IAC was spent on security, the £5mn bribe however…

I’m a Celeb did for Farage what HIGNFY did for Boris, rehabilitated him.

There need to be guidelines and preferably laws about MPs and members of devolved parliaments and TV appearances (and TV show-like streaming/social media).

I’d be amazed if anything happens as Starmer is beyond useless when it come to anything to do with media or social media. They’ll just nod through the purchase of ITV by Sky.

Before people jump to conclusions, I’m not a Reform voter and I’ve never liked Farage politically. But I do take both him and the support he gets seriously, because pretending millions of people are simply stupid or evil is not analysis. If you actually want to understand modern politics, you have to understand why figure like Farage are resilient even when scandals emerge around them.

And one thing a lot of commentators and people who are intensely critical of Farage, don’t understand about his supporters is that they’re judging this whole thing through completely the wrong moral framework.

Westminster journalists and others hear “broke parliamentary rules” and instantly assume so called ‘ordinary people’ will see some huge ethical scandal. But a lot of Reform voters simply don’t view navigating bureaucracy, loopholes or technical rules to make money as some unforgivable moral crime.

In many people’s everyday lives, finding ways around what they perceive as pointless systems is practically normal behaviour. Whether it’s tax loopholes, cash jobs, claiming what you can, side hustles, using connections, bending workplace rules, or just trying to get ahead in an economy where people feel it’s you vs The Man, loads of people already operate with the mindset that if the system is unfair or bloated then you’d be stupid not to play it to your advantage.

To be clear, that doesn’t mean people support outright corruption or theft. But there’s a huge difference in the some people’s minds between “this person enriched themselves by gaming a system” and “this person actively harmed ordinary people”. Westminster often treats those things as morally identical. A lot of voters absolutely do not. For some, this doing this kind of stuff is close to aspirational behaviour – they do it in small ways in their own lives and so they response will most likely be ‘fuck ‘em – good on ‘im”.

And honestly, after decades of MPs expenses scandals, corporate lobbying, PPE contracts, bankers crashing the economy and wealthy elites avoiding consequences for almost anything, many people’s reaction to this stuff is just: why is this suddenly the line you’re drawing now?

Farage’s support is built on anti-establishment sentiment in the first place remember. So when institutions people already distrust then start investigating him, many of his supporters don’t see neutral referees defending democracy. Instead, all they’ll see is the same political class trying to damage someone they feel threatened by.

That’s why even if the watchdog concludes he technically broke the rules, it doesn’t automatically follow that his support collapses. A lot of people either won’t care very much, won’t see it as morally serious, or will actively view the outrage itself as proof of elite hypocrisy.

There’s also another thing people underestimate about Farage specifically. A lot of his support is emotional and personal, not really just ideological. Many voters feel like they know him. They’ve watched him for years, heard him on radio, seen him on TV, watched him drink in pubs and argue with interviewers. Whether people like it or not, he has built a sense of familiarity and personal connection with parts of the electorate. His supporters genuinely really like him.

Once voters emotionally buy into a politician like that, they become far more forgiving of flaws and controversies because support stops being purely about abstract principles and instead becomes about identification and instinctive affection. People start thinking “he’s rough around the edges but he’s genuine” or “at least he says what he thinks” – people are like this – our relationships with people are built on things you feel towards someone and not what they do. If you can’t seem to like someone, then no matter how much they do to please you will change that, and any small act that invites criticism, will seem far more contemptible. If you really quite like someone, you’ll find ways to live with their flaws and even build them into more reasons for liking them, and anything they do for you, will seem so much more positively significant.

Keir Starmer is almost the complete opposite here, politically. His support is much more transactional and managerial. People may vote for him because they see him as competent, stable or less risky than the alternatives, but very few people feel genuine warmth or personal attachment towards him. That means scandals or failures land differently. When your support is built on competence and professionalism, allegations of rule breaking can damage the core image you rely on.

Icm less concerned how he spent the money, if you gave me £5M i would probably buy a house. I’m more concerned what he offered to get the money in the first place and who its ultimately linked to