Nigel Farage is facing mounting pressure to provide evidence for his claim that a state-sponsored Russian hack led to the disclosure of a £5m gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Reform UK alleged over the weekend that analysis of Farage’s phone by “counter-espionage experts” suggested his devices were compromised by “hostile actors, almost certainly linked to Moscow”.
The claim follows scrutiny of the undeclared gift, which Farage received before announcing his candidacy in the 2024 general election. Parliamentary transparency rules require MPs to register gifts above a certain threshold, but Farage initially described the payment as a “purely private” gift for security purposes.
A Guardian spokesperson dismissed the hack allegation as “an attempt to deflect attention from legitimate scrutiny of his financial affairs”, adding: “Nigel Farage is once again hiding behind a baseless attack on the media.” Labour and the Conservatives have called on Farage to hand any evidence to Britain’s security services.
It is understood the National Cyber Security Centre has not received a report from Farage regarding the alleged hack. Conservative chair Kevin Hollinrake said: “This is what you get when you sup with ‘The Devil’. Nigel Farage spent years making excuses for Putin, now, conveniently, he is suddenly playing the Russia card.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “Russian interference in our politics is incredibly serious… Nigel Farage needs to reassure the public that he’s reported this to the security services. He also needs to finally come clean as to how his secret £5 million ‘gift’ was spent and why he failed to declare it.”
Farage’s spokesperson did not respond to questions about who the alleged hack was reported to or whether evidence was handed to British authorities. The Reform UK leader has previously claimed the money was given as a “reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years”.
