By DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR
Published: | Updated:
Nigel Farage made a mistake when he described a £5million 'gift' from a super-rich reform donor as a 'reward for Brexit' a senior aide has been filmed suggesting.
Dan Jukes, who has been with Mr Farage for years, told an undercover reporter that the claim made in a media interview was 'not the line to take from the press office'.
Mr Farage has defended receiving the cash from Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne before the 2024 general election, saying it was was not connected to his political activity and needed to pay for private security.
But in May, Mr Farage told the Sun: 'Frankly, it was given as a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years.'
When it was suggested the cash may have influenced his decision to return to public life, Mr Farage said: 'I can't be bought by anybody, not even Elon Musk.'
Mr Jukes, was filmed by undercover group Verbatim, with footage shared with the Guardian showing him saying: 'That was not the line to take from the press office.
'So I think now the line is it was a thank you for Brexit to pay for security so he is safe for the rest of his life.'
Mr Farage has said the cash from Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne was not connected to his political activity and needed to pay for private security. But in May, Mr Farage told the Sun: 'Frankly, it was given as a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years'
Dan Jukes, who has been with Mr Farage for years, told an undercover reporter that the claim made in a media interview was 'not the line to take from the press office'
Mr Jukes's lawyers have accused Verbatim of 'entrapment over a prolonged period of time by individuals, using selective editing, who had their own agenda to discredit Reform UK.'
And a party spokesman said he 'accurately describes that the gift was for [Mr Farage's] security for the rest of his life'.
The former aide was suspended alongside the party’s head of policy James Orr over separate Verbatim filming for Channel 4 discussing getting money from foreign donor, but later cleared by an internal party investigation.
The undeclared money is at the centre of a probe into the Reform leader by Parliament's standards watchdog expected to rule imminently on whether it was a political donation that should have been declared.
He was recently interviewed by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg.
Under Commons rules, new MPs are required to register any gifts worth more than £300 they received in the previous 12 months, except where it 'could not be reasonably thought by others' to relate to their political activities.
Mr Farage has said the gift was not political and insisted he has done nothing wrong.
Mr Harborne is one of two crypto-billionaires who donated £72 million to Reform.
The twin £36 million gifts from Ben Delo and Mr Harborne reignited calls for a blanket cap on donations, going further than legislation aimed at restricting donations from overseas sources.
Mr Farage told the Sunday Times he thought the reaction to the donations would be 'far worse' but had actually resulted in 'some grudging respect… the fact that I managed to pull off a coup of that magnitude, I think people were quite impressed'.
Mr Harborne was based in Thailand, but in June he was reported to have registered to vote in Hampshire.