Yet more questions over Farage’s finances

“I have tried and failed in the past to get security funded by the Home Office and I don’t think the state will ever help me,” he wailed. “I’m very much on my own and will be for the rest of my life, and I have to face up to that grim reality. Christopher is an ardent supporter who is deeply concerned for my safety.”

Awkwardly for Farage, it very quickly emerged that, although it was reduced in scale in 2025, the Home Office did in fact offer him a bodyguard, a driver and car – pretty much the same provision made for Kemi Badenoch, the actual leader of His Majesty’s Official Opposition.

And now, even more awkwardly, it appears that Reform have been stumping up for his security all along – raising questions once again about why Harborne had actually stumped up the seven-figure gift.

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Rats in a Sack

Sources – which appear very much to have come from within Reform – have told the Guardian that the central party paid for a team and two cars ever since the reduction in the security provided by the taxpayer after the 2025 review. These costs have amounted to more than £150,000 in the past year, sources told the paper, saying: “It’s completely at odds with the narrative he’s tried to sell the public.”

Costs charged to Reform by Farage have included security changes to his properties, including ones used by his family members, according to sources, while the security team funded by the party has also been used by the leader for personal activities.

Still, if the security claim for Harborne’s largesse collapses, at least Farage has others. In May he gave the Sun a completely different story, saying: “Frankly, it was given as a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years.”

And in June he put up an even more robust defence for his acceptance of the cash, telling LBC: “With all due respect, what’s it got to do with you? It’s an unconditional gift. I can spend it on Ferraris if I want. That’d be entirely up to me. I can do what I want with it. I can put it on the horses.”

On the same day he refused to tell BBC Breakfast how much of the £5 million had been spent on his security, claiming, without explanation, that to answer it would endanger him. Who knows what to believe?

Meanwhile, further questions have been raised by Farage’s latest entry to the Commons’s Register of Members’ Interests, which would appear to show that either the Reform leader’s external earnings have fallen off a cliff since being returned to Parliament in a pointless by-election in the summer, or he’s forgotten to file them on time again.

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Rats in a Sack

Farage has declared a suspiciously modest £631.20 in the four months since his return to Parliament. He has only filed two declarations to the authorities with the latest, made just this week, barely enough to buy a round at the Westminster Arms.

In his latest declaration, under ‘employment and earnings’, Farage has reported £50.75 from Elon Musk’s X for “social media work”. The work is reported to have taken an hour – fifty quid being somewhat lower than the £22,500 an hour he has previously declared for his work as a “brand ambassador” for Direct Bullion, a gold dealer. In July he declared £270,000 for just 12 hours’ work for the firm.

His only other declaration made in September, for £580.45, was also from X while his most recent payment from GB News, £18,402, was reported back in June.

Farage, of course, has form for failing to register his outside earnings within 28 days of receipt, as required by parliamentary rules. In January this year he was found to have breached them 17 times by failing to register interests totalling £384,000 within the limit. He defended them by saying that he doesn’t “do computers”.

Has he been failing to plug in his Commodore 64 again? Or are we to believe he really has taken in just £630 in outside earnings in the past few months…?