Nigel Farage said a state-sponsored Russian hack was behind the disclosure of the £5m gift he received from Christopher Harborne, turning a growing row over his finances into a claim about foreign interference in British politics.
Reform UK said over the weekend that analysis of Farage's phone by counter-espionage experts suggested his phone, email and bank accounts were compromised by hostile actors almost certainly linked to Moscow using spear phishing tactics. On Sunday, Farage repeated the allegation to the Mail on Sunday, saying the reported activity was deeply concerning and underscored the threat they pose to British security.
The allegation landed after last month’s disclosure that Farage had received a £5 million gift from Harborne that had not been publicly declared, despite parliamentary transparency rules requiring MPs to register gifts and donations above a certain threshold. The timing matters because the Russian hack claim came only after questions had already intensified over why the gift was not listed and how it was used.
Labour and the Conservatives moved quickly after Farage made the allegation on Sunday, calling on him to hand any evidence to Britain’s security services. Kevin Hollinrake said that if Farage had genuine evidence that Russia tried to hack him, he should immediately pass it to the relevant authorities and be fully transparent with the British public. A Labour spokesperson said Russian interference in politics is incredibly serious, but added that Farage needed to reassure the public he had reported the matter to the security services and finally come clean about how his secret £5 million gift from his crypto billionaire backer was spent.
Farage’s spokesperson did not respond to questions about who he had reported the alleged hack to, whether any evidence had been given to British authorities, or how the handset examination pointed to Russia. It is understood the National Cyber Security Centre is not aware of any report from Farage about the alleged hack, leaving the claim without the kind of official backing that would normally give it weight.
That gap is why the political reaction has been so sharp. A Guardian spokesperson described Farage’s claim as an attempt to deflect attention from legitimate scrutiny of his financial affairs, adding that he was once again hiding behind a baseless attack on the media rather than facing up to scrutiny from journalists and politicians.
Farage has been under pressure since the gift was revealed last month, and the new allegation does not remove that scrutiny; it deepens it. The central issue now is not just whether his accounts were targeted, but whether he can produce evidence that will satisfy Britain’s security services and answer the unanswered questions about the undeclared £5m gift that brought him here in the first place.
