Buy a Ferrari with donations? UK Reform Party leader says Tether shareholder’s $6.7 million donation is an “unconditional gift”

BlockBeats message, June 24 — UK Reform Party leader Nigel Farage recently responded to the fact that he accepted a gift of £5 million (about US$6.7 million) from Tether shareholder Christopher Harborne, saying that the money is an “unconditional gift.” How it is used is entirely a personal matter: “If I want, I can use it to buy a Ferrari.”

Currently, the UK Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is investigating whether Farage should have declared this gift after being elected as an MP in 2024. Under the rules, newly elected MPs are typically required to declare high-value gifts received in the previous year.

Harborne is a Thai businessman of British descent who holds about 12% of the shares in stablecoin issuer Tether, and is also one of the main funders of the UK Reform Party. Faced with outside doubts that the gift might affect his stance on supporting cryptocurrency, Farage denied it, saying that he has long supported the development of the crypto industry and advocating for establishing a UK Bitcoin reserve and reducing capital gains tax on digital assets.

Notably, this personal gift is independent of the political donations Harborne made to the Reform Party, and neither was paid in cryptocurrency.