Chris Mason: Accusations around Farage leave him looking vulnerable to his rivals

Once again, the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is in the news and at the heart of the headlines are power, transparency and money.

Vast amounts of money, in the view of his critics far too little transparency and a party that opinion polls suggest is the favourite to win power at the next general election.

The ongoing swirl of stories about Farage has put him on the back foot – he has been much less visible in front of the cameras and has come across as uncomfortable, even irritable, at the questions thrown his way as a result.

His argument is none of this relates to taxpayers' money and it collectively amounts to ongoing attempts to undermine both him and Reform UK.

But it does relate to huge quantities of money and big questions about what that money can buy – particularly given the connections to cryptocurrency and Farage's long standing desire to liberalise the UK's approach to digital currencies.

The Reform leader has long argued his views on crypto are long standing and gifts buy nothing in terms of influence.

In truth, all of this is what scrutiny looks like when you are a candidate for prime minister, as Nigel Farage is. And for the first time in a long time, Reform's political rivals spot a party encountering turbulence.

So let's take a look at the House of Commons Code of Conduct and then examine Farage's conduct.

On pages three and four of the document, it is spelt out that "members must fulfil conscientiously the requirements of the House in respect of the registration of interests in the Register of Members' Financial Interests.

"New members must register all their current financial interests, and any registrable benefits received in the 12 months before their election within one month of their election."

So what wouldn't need to be registered?

On pages 19 and 20, it says: "Benefits which could not reasonably be thought by others to be related to membership of the House or to the member's parliamentary or political activities, for example purely personal gifts or benefits from partners or family members.

"However, both the possible motive of the giver and the use to which the gift is to be put should be considered. If there is any doubt, the benefit should be registered."

Nigel Farage argues that both the £5m gift from the Thailand based British cryptocurrency investor and billionaire Christopher Harborne and the support from George Cottrell, who is also heavily involved in crypto, were gifts he received before he was an MP and at a time when he was not involved in politics.

Harborne has previously said he "wasn't expecting anything in return" for his gift and wanted it to help pay for Farage's security.

Cottrell, via his lawyers, said he "categorically disputes allegations and assertions made by The Sunday Times, which clearly fail to reflect what that publisher was told in advance of its reporting".

It is true that in the year prior to the 2024 general election, Farage waxed and waned about whether he wanted to return to front line politics again – and whether he would run for Parliament again, and arrived at his decision publicly very late.

It is also true that during this time he was working for GB News and went to the Australian jungle as a contestant on ITV's I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.

His argument is he was a broadcaster, influencer and businessman at this time and not a politician.

But his critics point out that he was the honorary president of Reform UK and they argue that if he wasn't campaigning why did he need the hired skills of those with social media expertise, paid for, as the Sunday Times revealed, by George Cottrell?

Does this amount to "political activities" as set out in the rules above?

His fellow MPs in other parties are aghast at all this. As many of them see it, a failure by the parliamentary commissioner for standards to come down hard on Farage would make a mockery of plenty of other MPs' diligence.

"Why should we be so scrupulous in declaring everything, if he were to be able to get away with this?" one said to me.

It is almost two months since the commissioner, Daniel Greenberg, opened an inquiry into Farage's "failure to register an interest" over the £5m gift given to the Reform leader by Christopher Harborne.

The Liberal Democrats have now asked Greenberg to look into the latest revelations from the Sunday Times.

And both of these are on top of the registered income Farage acknowledges for promoting gold bullion.

He has been paid almost half a million pounds over the last year for talking up Direct Bullion, a firm whose adverts he appeared in at last autumn's Reform conference.

The question for Farage is whether all of this looks very out of touch to the millions of voters he is seeking the support of?

Unquestionably, he would rather be talking about almost anything else.

The potted story of politics in the last two years has been Reform's spectacular rise, a growth which has spooked, even petrified their opponents, in particular the Labour Party.

Farage's political successes are a big factor, probably the biggest factor, in accelerating the demise of Sir Keir Starmer and the rise of Andy Burnham.

But, in recent months and yes, recent days, this swirl around Farage has started to give his political rivals belief that he is vulnerable and beatable.

"You can never write off someone of his political ability, and he is still leading in the polls as he has done for ages. But with all this, it shows it is game on, he's under pressure," said one rival.

Farage now awaits the decision of the parliamentary commissioner for standards – his judgement about the £5m gift and whether he will look into these latest revelations.

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