Farage claims probe into undeclared £5m crypto billionaire’s ‘gift’ is rigged against him

Nigel Farage has claimed that the result of an inquiry into his undeclared £5m donation from a crypto billionaire is rigged against him, in an extraordinary attack on those who will decide his fate.

The leader of Reform UK has just returned to parliament after winning a by-election he called in his Clacton constituency in protest at the Commons’ standards inquiry against him over the donation from Christopher Harborne.

The donation was received before Mr Farage became an MP in July 2024 but was less than a year before the election so fell into the period when it should have been declared, according to complainants. Mr Farage has insisted that the donation was personal to pay for his private security, so there was no need to declare it.

In outlandish comments, which have echoes of Boris Johnson’s attack on the Privileges Committee in 2022, Mr Farage has suggested that MPs and independent members of the Standards Committee have already prejudged him as guilty without a fair hearing.

He told the BBC: “Well, I mean, that investigation, the outcome. Have you seen who is on the committee? I think we know the outcome already.”

The tactic used by Mr Johnson and his allies to try to distract from the charges of lying to parliament over the Partygate scandal during the Covid pandemic eventually led to a much stiffer punishment and him losing the right to have a former MP’s pass to be allowed to return.