Reform UK has been paying for Nigel Farage's personal security out of its central funds, according to sources, despite the party leader's claim that these costs would be met by a £5m gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

The nigel farage security funding question has become pressing for the party because the security bill has mounted up: sources said the costs have exceeded £150,000 in the past year. A Reform source said the arrangement sits awkwardly with the story Farage has told publicly about the gift.

Party funds cover security team and cars

Since the taxpayer-funded security Farage received as an MP was reduced after a review in 2025, Reform's central party has paid for a security team and two cars for its leader, sources said.

Costs Farage has charged to the party have also included security changes to his properties, among them properties used by family members, sources said. His Reform-funded security team has additionally been used for personal activities, according to sources.

How the taxpayer offer unfolded

Farage has suggested the Home Office offered him no security support at all. In fact, he was offered a reduced package of a bodyguard, a driver and a car – provision similar to that made for Kemi Badenoch.

Farage refused that taxpayer-funded offer. When he became an MP, however, he had accepted taxpayer-funded security and used it until the autumn of 2025.

The £5m gift and shifting explanations

Harborne gave Farage £5m shortly before he stood as an MP at the 2024 general election. The crypto billionaire has said the money was intended to support Farage's security for life.

Farage's own account has shifted: he has said he could spend the money on Ferraris, that it was a reward for Brexit campaigning, or that it was given for his safety.

Lawyers for Harborne said he expected nothing in return and did not envisage Farage returning to politics. His lawyers say the gift was made on 5 April 2024, though financial industry sources say some of the £5m arrived at the end of May, just before Farage announced on 3 June that he would stand as an MP.

Party and rivals respond

Reform UK has declined to discuss the arrangement.

• •A party spokesperson said: "As a standard practice, we do not comment on security matters."

• •The party distinguished, the Guardian understands, between security required as a result of its leader's political activities – which it pays for – and longer-term personal security, which the gift was meant to fund.

• •The party refused to say whether Farage had spent any of the £5m on security, or why he turned down the taxpayer-funded package.

• •Reform's home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf had publicly complained in October 2025 that the party was having to seek fresh donor support to meet Farage's security costs.

Labour party chair Bridget Phillipson seized on the conflicting accounts. "Nigel Farage's excuses over his secret £5m 'gift' have fallen apart. You can't trust a word he says," she said, citing police investigations into Reform's finances and donations from a convicted fraudster, and saying Farage should be honest with the public.

A Conservative party spokesperson said Farage had described the money at different times as a reward for Brexit or as cash he could spend on Ferraris or horses, and that he should say where the £5m has gone.

The party has refused to answer questions on whether any of the £5m has gone on security, or on why Farage declined the taxpayer-funded offer.