Nigel Farage has compared his situation to that of Donald Trump being pursued by investigators for years, saying both of them are “outsiders” up against “the system”, as he admitted having become tetchy and aggrieved this summer.
The Reform UK leader has been under huge scrutiny over his finances after failing to declare a £5m gift from the Thailand-based donor Christopher Harborne and further financial support from a friend, the fraudster George Cottrell, before the last election.
Harborne’s gift is the subject of an inquiry by parliament’s standards commissioner, which resumed last month after Farage won a byelection in Clacton. Farage maintains the gifts were accepted in a personal and non-political capacity.
Speaking in a BBC interview ahead of Reform UK’s conference this week, he was dismissive of the investigation into him, suggesting any sanction imposed by the standards commissioner was unlikely to be fair.
He claimed there was a “wilful attempt, and it’s gone on now for months, to say that everything to do with Reform, that every individual involved with Reform is somehow a crook” – which he dismissed as “the establishment in a very coordinated way fighting back”.
The Reform leader also suggested the investigations into him, which he characterised as “attacks”, were similar to those against Trump. During and after leaving office the first time, Trump railed against the various criminal cases against him, later accusing the Joe Biden administration of trying to destroy him. He recently failed to overturn 34 felony convictions against him for falsifying business records.
Drawing a comparison with the investigations into Trump, Farage said: “Very similar things happened to Trump in America. They went after him for year after year after year … You know, going back two years, we expected there to be these sort of attacks.
“I can see the similarities because again, he was an outsider, he wasn’t part of the system. So look, we’ve had to weather this for the last few months. I’ve little doubt that the attacks won’t stop, but I am utterly confident … in terms of the growth, the professionalisation of this organisation, our compliance checks, all of those things, I think we’re in a strong place.”
Farage suggested he was likely to be interviewed by the standards commissioner soon, as he dismissed the criticism of him for failing to register the £5m gift as a sign of a “complainants’ society”.
The Reform UK leader was pressed during the interview on whether his tone had been out of character this summer, after some inside the party questioned if he had sounded like too much of a victim. Asked about whether he could have taken a sunnier and more optimistic tone instead of an aggrieved one, Farage claimed his family had been targeted with threats to their security and “another huge bout of debanking”.
“Have I been pretty ratty over that and upset over that? I will accept. Hands up. I might not have quite been my normal self over the last few months, but you know when it’s your own family, it’s close to home,” he said. “I’ve been around for ever in this game. I’m big enough and ugly enough to take the rough and tumble in the game. I’ve generally, you know, gone through politics with a smile, whatever’s happened. But some of those personal things over the last few months have weighed very heavily.”
There had been speculation earlier this summer that Farage could step away from Reform amid scrutiny of his finances and jostling for position among those senior politicians who could succeed him. Reform UK has slipped in some recent polls having led for more than a year, falling behind Labour and even the Conservatives.
Farage told the BBC he would still be leader of the party at the next election. “It’s my responsibility,” he said. “I will be there. To carry the can whichever way it goes.”
