Financial controversies continue to follow Farage

“I cannot be bought.” Nigel Farage’s voice boomed around Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre as Reform UK opened its conference video. The words were meant to energize delegates before the leader’s speech.

But 22 hours earlier, Channel 4 News had broadcast a half-hour investigation based largely on covert filming. The report offered a starkly different view and, according to the article, dealt a major blow to the party’s main political event.

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I cannot be bought.

Farage closed Reform UK’s second annual conference by acknowledging that the party would face difficult days and sometimes get things wrong. He said the movement would pick itself up after setbacks and begin again.

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There will be times in this journey when there are good days, and times when there are difficult days.

The article presents this as the third time in the summer that Reform UK has had to recover from allegations involving political finance. Earlier controversies centered on an undeclared £5 million personal donation to Farage from Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne, and reporting about George Cottrell, a close Farage aide and supporter accused of supplying covert finance and other support to Reform.

Cottrell was convicted of wire fraud in the United States and arrested by the FBI while traveling with Farage after the 2016 Republican convention. A Times podcast later examined his role. Police are now reviewing four funding issues involving Reform UK. The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is examining the £5 million gift and confirmed receiving a Liberal Democrat complaint about the Channel 4 report and a sting operation by investigative journalists from Verbatim. The Electoral Commission may also become involved.

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Sometimes we will make mistakes. Sometimes we will get things wrong, and get a bit of a kicking for it.