UK Reform leader Farage faces parliamentary inquiry into nearly £7m | Political Affairs

If found guilty, the right-wing champion could be suspended from the House of Commons for a period of time.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is facing an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards into a $6.7m (£5 million) gift from a party donor, days after the party’s anti-immigrant stance was revealed. the most successful in the central and regional elections.

A spokesman for Reform UK denied any wrongdoing on Wednesday, telling Reuters: “(Farage) has been very clear that this was a personal, unrestricted gift and no rules were broken.”

“We expect this to be settled once and for all,” the spokesman said.

Farage said he accepted donations from Thai billionaire and crypto investor Christopher Harborne to pay for his defense before announcing he would stand in the 2024 election that brought him to Parliament.

He said these were not political donations, but coalition parties in April accused him of breaking the law, which requires MPs to declare donations they received during the election year within a month of taking office.

The party has been in the lead in every election in the country since the beginning of last year, which has led many people to scrutinize the party’s finances. Last week, elections for nearly 5,000 seats in 136 councils in England, as well as in the devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales, showed significant progress for Reform UK, including in areas considered to be Labour’s heartlands.

If the inquiry finds that ⁠Farage seriously breached parliamentary disclosure rules, he could be suspended from Parliament for a period of time. A suspension of 10 days or more could trigger a recall petition, which would force him to run in a special election for his seat.

Almost two-thirds of Reform’s money last year came from Harborne, according to Electoral Commission data. Critics say the money from the foreign billionaire shows the gap between Farage’s image as a man of the people he wants to establish and his dependence on donors.

The deputy leader of Reform, Richard Tice, said at the end of the week that voters already know about this gift and they still chose to vote for the party in large numbers in last week’s election.

Earlier this year, Farage apologized after he was found by parliamentary officials to have breached 17 rules by unknowingly disclosing financial transactions, including payments from Google and Elon Musk’s X Corp.

The Chief Legal Officer at the House of Representatives confirmed that the failure was not intentional due to staff management issues and other issues.