Must Watch
He won his own by-election and skipped the count — too scared of being “demeaned and humiliated by nobodies”
Farage declared a pre-emptive "convincing, overwhelming win" hours before the actual result at an invite-only event dubbed "Farage Fest", then refused to attend the official declaration, saying he was "damned" if he'd be "demeaned and humiliated by nobodies." He claimed Essex Police had warned him of an organised plot to disrupt the result; the force said it had advised no candidate to stay away. He is the first winning parliamentary candidate to skip his own declaration in over 40 years — since jailed IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in 1981. Satirical rival Count Binface, who did show up, opened his own speech: "I am the winning candidate — of the candidates who bothered to turn up."
Read full storyFarage resigns as MP to trigger “people vs establishment” by-election — and suspend two Standards investigations
Facing two concurrent Parliamentary Standards investigations, Farage resigned as MP on July 7, triggering a by-election on August 13. Investigations pause during a vacancy and resume only if he wins. Every main party boycotted. Labour called it a “desperate stunt,” Badenoch a “hissy fit.” On the same day, the £5m Harborne gift was reported to the NCA by bankers under anti-money laundering rules.
Read full storyFarage supports two-tier policing — when it suits him
In September 2025, Farage told the US Congress the UK had become “North Korea” for prosecuting social media posts, championing Lucy Connolly — sentenced to 31 months for tweeting that people should “set fire to hotels” housing asylum seekers — as a victim of “two-tier policing.” In July 2026, after a man was arrested for posting “I am going to shoot you in the head” at Farage on X, he welcomed the arrest and called for police to investigate “three or four hundred similar posts.” The legal basis for both prosecutions is identical. The only difference is who the target is.
Read full storyWhen his secret £5m gift was exposed, Farage blamed Russia. Experts called it “without any merit.”
When the Guardian revealed that Farage had secretly received £5 million from Christopher Harborne, Reform sources told the Mail on Sunday that Russian spies had hacked his phone and leaked the story. The founding chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre called the claims “disturbing” and “without any merit.” Reform never named their experts, never released forensic analysis, and never formally reported it to the NCSC. Labour referred the claim to police. He had been caught with a secret £5 million gift. He blamed Putin.
Read full storyWhen 34 former classmates alleged racism, Farage demanded the BBC apologise for 1970s television
After 34 of his former schoolmates at Dulwich College came forward with accounts of racist and antisemitic behaviour, Farage called the BBC’s reporting “despicable” and “disgusting beyond belief” and demanded the corporation apologise “for everything it did in the 1970s and 80s” as a defence. His deputy Richard Tice called the testimonies “made-up twaddle.” Farage said he never said anything “with malice” — not a denial, just a qualification. Thirty-four people said what they saw. His response was to attack the messenger.
Read full storyCoutts closed his account. He turned it into a national crusade — and two bank CEOs resigned in the fallout.
In June 2023, Coutts — the private bank for people with over £1 million in assets — closed Farage’s account after he no longer met their wealth threshold. Internal documents also showed concerns about his public statements. Farage turned it into a months-long campaign about “free speech” and “debanking,” drawing in Rishi Sunak, Elon Musk and the Treasury. The NatWest CEO resigned. The Coutts CEO resigned. An independent review found the closure was lawful. Farage eventually settled for an undisclosed sum. Every year over 400,000 ordinary people have their bank accounts closed — without a Prime Minister phoning in support.
Read full storyReform’s Pochin forced to apologise: “Adverts full of black people drive me mad”
Sarah Pochin, Reform’s first female MP, told a TalkTV caller complaining about advertising demographics they were “absolutely right” and said diversity in adverts drove her “mad.” She was forced to apologise. Farage called the comments “wrong and ugly.” Pochin had also previously made claims about asylum seekers causing crime in Runcorn that police confirmed were unsupported by evidence.
Read full storyDeputy leader met Israel’s president on a lobby-funded trip, then called scrutiny of it “antisemitic”
Richard Tice met President Isaac Herzog in September 2025 on a trip funded by Reform Friends of Israel, a group seeded at a dinner with Farage and “key backers” and led by Herzog’s own former media adviser. Israel’s Foreign Ministry separately paid over £50,000 to fly Tice’s chief of staff and other Reform figures to Israel weeks later. Tice then told the Commons a debate on Israeli influence in UK politics was “antisemitic in its very motivation” without declaring any of it. The Standards Commissioner opened an inquiry in August 2026.
Read full storyFarage named in Bannon–Epstein texts coordinating European populist project
In around March 2018, Steve Bannon was texting Jeffrey Epstein describing a coordinated plan to knit together populist nationalist movements across Europe, explicitly naming Farage alongside Orbán, Le Pen, Salvini and the AfD. Bannon forwarded plans for ‘the Movement’ to Epstein, who offered logistical support. There is no evidence Farage was aware of the correspondence.
Read full storyFarage denies the Gaza genocide — his foreign policy chief says Israel has committed “not a single war crime”
In June 2025, Farage denied there is a genocide in Gaza and said he would not support suspending weapons exports to Israel. His chief foreign policy adviser, Jason Pearlman, was until December 2024 a media adviser to Israeli President Isaac Herzog — whom a UN Commission of Inquiry found to have incited genocide. Pearlman says Israel has committed “not a single war crime” in Gaza and has spread conspiracy theories about Palestinian victims being actors. Reform deputy Richard Tice visited Gaza in September 2025 and wrote that the famine there was “a blatant lie” — at a time when observers estimated over half a million people were experiencing famine. When Trump proposed “taking over” Gaza, Farage said: “I love that notion.”
Read full storyFormer Reform UK Wales leader Nathan Gill jailed for 10.5 years for accepting Russian bribes
Nathan Gill was sentenced at the Old Bailey after pleading guilty to eight counts of bribery. He accepted cash from a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician to make scripted pro-Kremlin statements in the European Parliament, using codewords like “promised X-mas gifts” for payments.
Read full storyFarage’s Finances
Google, Meta, TikTok and oil lobbyists sponsor his party’s conference — crypto firms are the only ones missing
Crypto sponsors vanished from Reform’s Sept 3–5 Birmingham conference amid the Harborne scandal, replaced by Google and Meta running AI panels (both gave $1m+ to Trump’s inauguration and ballroom fund; Farage has personally pocketed £21,590 from Google and £2,795 from Meta), TikTok sponsoring a media session, and Fuels Industry UK — whose members include BP, Shell and ExxonMobil — co-hosting an energy event with Richard Tice. Reform has taken over £24m from fossil fuel interests since 2019. When the journalist who broke this story asked Reform for comment, they revoked his press accreditation instead.
Read full storyUndercover sting catches Reform aides celebrating a secret foreign donation — both resign, party reported to police
Channel 4 News reporters posing as an American father and his British son offered Reform £500,000, and the party’s head of policy James Orr and aide Dan Jukes organised £32,500 to commission three “independent” polls — unaware the money traced back to undercover journalists. UK law bars donations from anyone not eligible to vote here; reporters demonstrated exactly how to launder US cash through a British relative first. Both Orr and Jukes have since stepped down pending an internal investigation. Rival parties reported Reform to the Met Police, the Electoral Commission is coordinating with police, and the polling firm involved self-reported a breach of professional rules to the British Polling Council. Farage’s defence: “No money was taken at all.” It broke the night before Reform’s conference was meant to relaunch the party’s image.
Read full storyReform got 75% of last quarter’s donations from a US-convicted felon pardoned by Trump
Reform UK received £4m — three quarters of everything the party raised last quarter — from Ben Delo, a crypto entrepreneur convicted of a US banking secrecy violation and pardoned by Donald Trump, who says he has returned from Hong Kong to “save Britain before decline becomes irreversible.” It is the same pattern as Christopher Harborne’s £5m secret gift and George Cottrell’s money: a party built on working-class anger, bankrolled almost entirely by a handful of ultra-wealthy men, several of them with criminal convictions.
Read full storyThe same two crypto billionaires gave Reform £72m in a single day — the largest political donations in UK history
Days after the Ben Delo story broke, Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo each handed Reform a further £36m within 24 hours of each other — £72m combined, dwarfing anything a UK party has ever received from individual donors. Harborne insisted he expects “nothing” in return — “no peerage, no policy change.” Housing Secretary Angela Rayner responded: “If you don’t pay taxes, if you don’t live here, you can’t buy your way into our democracy because you’re a billionaire,” and ministers are now drafting a law to cap overseas-citizen donations at £100,000 a year, backdated so parties would have to repay anything above that within 60 days. Reform’s Robert Jenrick says the donations are “entirely in line with the law as it is.”
Read full storyHe resigned to dodge the £5m investigation. He won the seat back. The investigation reopened within hours.
Farage won the August 13 Clacton by-election he triggered by resigning — every major party boycotted it, leaving a novelty candidate in a dustbin costume as his most prominent challenger. Within hours of the result, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner quietly reopened the £5m Harborne gift inquiry that had been frozen by his resignation. Reports say Farage had been “poorly advised” that stepping down and winning again would make the probe go away. His response: “Who cares, the voters of Clacton don’t care.”
Read full storyNigel Farage was given undisclosed £5m by crypto billionaire in 2024
Reform leader changed his mind about standing as an MP after receiving a £5m personal gift from Thai-based crypto tycoon Christopher Harborne. Not disclosed until the Guardian published an investigation in April 2026. Parliamentary Standards Commissioner opened a formal inquiry in May 2026. Harborne’s funding chain traces through Tether’s investment in Rumble, which hosts Russian state media.
Read full story“Skint” Farage’s £4m mortgage-free property empire — and £22,500-an-hour gold gig
Land Registry documents reveal Farage and partner Laure Ferrari own five properties worth ~£4m, four bought in cash since 2020. Only two declared to Parliament. Ferrari’s £885,000 Clacton home was bought in cash with no mortgage; she has declined to explain how. Meanwhile the latest register shows Farage was paid £270,000 for 12 hours promoting gold bullion — £22,500 an hour. The average Clacton salary is ∼£25,000 per year.
Read full storyFarage reported to Standards watchdog over crypto lobbying — met Bank of England Governor after Harborne donation
Labour MP Phil Brickell filed a formal complaint on July 2, 2026 alleging Farage breached the 12-month lobbying restriction. Eight months after a £25,000 Harborne donation, Farage privately urged Bank of England Governor Bailey to scrap the digital pound and drop £20,000 stablecoin caps. Harborne holds ∼12% of Tether. The Bank subsequently dropped the cap. Farage claimed credit. He also bought £2m of Bitcoin personally in April 2026.
Read full storyPolice investigate £500,000 Reform donations from mother of convicted fraudster who backed Farage
Metropolitan Police are investigating two £250,000 donations to Reform UK in May 2024 by Fiona Cottrell — mother of George Cottrell, Farage’s closest ally and convicted fraudster. Two people interviewed under caution. Separately, ∼£1m from Fiona Cottrell to Richard Tice’s company was referred to the NCA by bankers — origin of funds could not be traced. Fiona Cottrell is described as of “relatively modest means” yet has given £1.75m to Reform and connected vehicles.
Read full story‘Posh George’ Cottrell: the aristocrat, convicted fraudster and FBI sting target at the heart of Farage’s inner circle
George Cottrell — grandson of a baron, expelled from Malvern College for gambling, arrested alongside Farage in 2016 in an FBI dark-web money-laundering sting — allegedly provided Farage with security, social media staff, his £1.5m I’m A Celebrity deal, and Buckingham Palace-area accommodation, almost none of it declared. Resident in Montenegro, now lobbying Trump for a presidential pardon. His book is titled “How to Launder Money.”
Read full storyTice sued over parliamentary allegations about £46m Lebanon police contract
Siren Associates is suing Reform’s deputy leader after Tice called their £46m government contract to train Lebanese police “a grotesque abuse of taxpayers’ cash”. Tice then used parliamentary privilege to repeat and extend the allegations in the Commons, making claims about links between Lebanon’s police and Hezbollah that are protected from legal action when made in Parliament — but the original social media post is not.
Read full storyTice avoided ∼£600,000 in corporation tax via property REIT loophole — Labour calls for HMRC investigation
Analysis by Tax Policy Associates found that Tice obtained REIT status for his Quidnet property company, allowing it to treat income distributions as tax-exempt dividends rather than taxable trading income — avoiding an estimated ∼£600,000 in corporation tax. This is separate from the earlier £120,000 withholding tax issue. Labour called for HMRC to investigate. Tice says all tax due was paid.
Read full storyFarage ignores parents plea not to politicise son’s murder
Farage made a rare appearance at PMQs to exploit the Henry Nowak tragedy, while even Kemi Badenoch echoed the healing tone adopted by the rest of the House. Starmer’s response was withering — the whole chamber, bar six Reform MPs, stood united against Farage’s attempt to foster division.
Read full storyReform UK and Nigel Farage ‘fanned flames’ of race riots in Glasgow
Critics and opposition figures accused Farage and Reform UK of directly fanning the flames of division following outbreaks of racist violence and disorder in Glasgow. Opponents argue that inflammatory rhetoric from the party consistently legitimised extreme anti-immigrant sentiment in the period leading up to the violence.
Read full story“Skint” Farage’s £4m mortgage-free property empire — and £22,500-an-hour gold gig
Land Registry documents reveal Farage and partner Laure Ferrari own five properties worth ~£4m, four bought in cash since 2020. Only two declared to Parliament. Ferrari’s £885,000 Clacton home was bought in cash with no mortgage; she has declined to explain how. Meanwhile the latest register shows Farage was paid £270,000 for 12 hours promoting gold bullion — £22,500 an hour. The average Clacton salary is ∼£25,000 per year.
Read full story‘Go back home’: Farage schoolmate accounts bring total alleging racist behaviour to 34
Thirty-four school contemporaries of Nigel Farage have come forward claiming they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour during his time at Dulwich College. Farage has characterised the incidents as “banter” and has refused to apologise.
Read full story17 separate rule breaches found. His defence: “I don’t do computers.”
A separate Standards Commissioner inquiry, concluded in January 2026, found Farage had registered seventeen financial interests late — including GB News payments declared up to 120 days after the deadline. In a recorded evidence session he told the Commissioner he isn’t “computer literate,” blamed a “gross administrative error” by staff, and said the failures were down to “severe growing pains.” He was let off with an apology under the rectification process — no referral to the Committee on Standards, despite the Commissioner calling it a “finely balanced decision.”
Read full storyFarage made 8 trips to America as MP. He mentioned Clacton 4 times in Parliament.
Since being elected MP for Clacton in July 2024, Farage made at least eight trips to the United States — including a £33,000 trip paid for by crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne to visit Trump after the assassination attempt, and a December 2024 trip to speak at a Steve Bannon-hosted dinner in New York, with a side visit to Palm Beach to meet Elon Musk paid for by convicted fraudster George Cottrell. By November 2024, he had visited the US five times — just one more than the number of times he had visited Clacton. He mentioned his constituency fewer than four times in the Commons. Every other Reform MP mentioned their own constituency more. He held zero surgeries. When asked about the US trips, he claimed a £32,000 all-expenses visit to Trump was to “represent Clacton on the world stage.” In February 2024 he had asked: “Do I want to spend every Friday for the next five years in Clacton?” His expression, the Times reporter noted, suggested not.
Read full storyFarage missed 77 consecutive votes, held zero surgeries, and spoke less in Parliament than any other party leader
Official parliamentary figures show Farage voted in just 33.5% of divisions — bottom 8% of all MPs and the lowest rate of any Reform UK MP. In the 11 weeks before May 2026, he missed 77 consecutive votes including motions on crime, children’s wellbeing, pensions and immigration — the issue Reform was built on. He made at least eight trips to the United States but held not a single in-person surgery for Clacton constituents. He initially claimed the Speaker’s office advised him not to hold surgeries; the Speaker’s office said no such advice was given. He spoke just 45 times in Parliament — compared to 226 for Badenoch, 97 for Davey and 152 for Green co-leader Carla Denyer.
Read full storyReform UK candidates promised to freeze council tax. Every single one raised it.
In the 2025 local elections, Reform candidates across Nottinghamshire, North Northamptonshire and Leicestershire explicitly pledged to “freeze” or “cut” council tax. Every Reform-controlled council subsequently raised it. All nine upper-tier councils with a Reform majority increased Band D council tax for 2026/27. Reform’s record in local government after one year: dozens of councillors expelled, jailed or resigned; care home closure plans described as a “betrayal of local people”; council tax up in every authority they control.
Read full storyReform UK lost dozens of councillors within a year — to jailing, expulsion and defection
Since winning council seats across England in May 2025, Reform UK has shed dozens of councillors through expulsions, suspensions and resignations. Cases include councillors sentenced to prison, others who defected to rival parties within months, and a string of misconduct allegations. Meanwhile their two most experienced MPs — a former Home Secretary and a former shadow Justice Secretary — walked into the wrong Commons lobby and accidentally voted for Labour’s policy. This is what Reform looks like when it actually has to do the job.
Read full storyAfter a year of Reform UK in local government, the cracks are starting to show
Reform-led councils raised council tax by an average of 3.94%, climate commitments scaled back, and plans to close care homes called a “betrayal of local people.” The gap between populist rhetoric and policy reality widens as the party confronts the demands of actually governing.
Read full storyJenrick and Braverman accidentally vote WITH Labour — trapped in wrong Commons lobby
Two of Reform’s most experienced parliamentary veterans — a former Home Secretary and former shadow Justice Secretary — walked into the wrong division lobby and were locked in when voting on the two-child benefit cap. Both voted for Labour’s policy they officially opposed. The bill passed 458–104.
Read full storyReform Wales leader quits after arrest for “controlling behaviour” — same day an MS defects to Plaid Cymru
Dan Thomas, the Farage-appointed leader of Reform UK Wales and Leader of the Opposition in the Senedd, was arrested on September 13, 2026 on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour, then released without charge and bailed pending further inquiries. He resigned as leader on September 15, insisting he had “done nothing wrong” but didn’t want it to become “a distraction.” The same day, Reform MS Sarah Cooper-Lesadd defected to Plaid Cymru, saying “Reform has no interest in the work I came here to do.” Reform Wales had grown from zero seats to the largest opposition group in Welsh history in little over a year — and is now shedding leaders and members just as fast.
Read full storyReform crashes to third place — from 311 projected seats a year ago to 123 now
A YouGov MRP poll for The Times now puts Reform on 22% and just 123 projected seats — behind Labour (24%, 241 seats) and the Conservatives (21%, 130 seats), and enough to hand Jenrick and Braverman’s own seats back to the Tories. A year earlier, in September 2025, YouGov had projected Reform winning 311 seats and 27% — on course to be the largest party. The paper attributes the collapse to the rise of Rupert Lowe’s breakaway Restore Britain and “a string of financial scandals.” A separate More in Common poll put Reform in third on national voting intention for the first time in 18 months.
Read full story