Robert Jenrick has said it is 'legitimate' for the media to ask questions about Nigel Farage's £5m personal donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire, just days after the Reform UK leader told an interviewer it was 'none of your business'. Jenrick, who is Reform's shadow chancellor, said voters on the doorstep were not asking about the money given to Farage by the Thailand-based British crypto investor Christopher Harborne.
However, he acknowledged it was not unreasonable for the media to have questions about the £5m, in contrast to Farage's claim earlier this week that it was a private matter. At the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference, asked by Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge whether Farage was right to say people did not care about it, Jenrick replied: 'I've knocked on a lot of doors... and I have to say, in all sincerity, not a single person has raised that question with me.'
'It doesn't mean that it's not a legitimate question for the media to ask, but it is not one that, in my experience, is on the tip of the tongue of people across the country,' he added. Jenrick also said there was no donor influencing Reform's agenda and that the party should have a policy on crypto as it is a 'significant growth opportunity'.
The donation, first revealed by the Guardian in April, is now being investigated by the parliamentary commissioner for standards. Farage initially said the money was for security purposes, later claimed it was a reward for Brexit, and this week said it had not been spent at all. On Wednesday, Labour chair Anna Turley asked the Financial Conduct Authority to investigate whether Farage's public pronouncements about cryptocurrencies may have been intended to benefit Harborne.
