Crypto, peerages, or political self-sacrifice – why did Farage gift Boris the 2019 election?

On an overcast Monday morning in November 2019, Nigel Farage walked up to the podium at a hastily convened press conference in Hartlepool’s Best Western hotel.

After three years of bitter political infighting and failure to pass a Brexit bill, the prime minister,  Boris Johnson, was at an impasse. He’d called a snap election to “Get Brexit Done”, his last roll of the dice, and Farage – mid-campaign, riding high as ever on the oxygen of free publicity – had summoned the press pack north. 

Behind him was the banner of the Brexit party, the new insurgent political party that he’d founded and was leading into the final Brexit battle. This was the election that would finally decide, once and for all, whether and how Britain would leave the European Union. 

Yet Farage seemed uncharacteristically subdued. After rambling at length about the betrayals of Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, and long-forgotten Brexit minutiae, he suddenly delivered a shock announcement. He’d faced a “very difficult” decision, he said. It was so difficult that he’d only finally made up his mind the night before. He’d chosen to do the “selfless” thing. There was an existential risk, he said, of a Remain coalition and the ultimate “nightmare”: a “people’s vote”, a second referendum on a final Brexit deal. So Farage declared, just a month before the election, that he would be standing down all 317 Brexit party candidates running in Conservative-held seats. 

For those candidates, it was a jaw-dropping moment. They’d poured their hearts – and in some cases their finances – into the campaign. “I found out from the TV news,” one told the Nerve. Without any sort of warning, Farage had thrown them overboard. What’s more, it would later become apparent that he’d signed his own party’s death warrant. 

The question is: why? 

The obvious answer is that, as he said, it was the “selfless” thing to do: sacrificing self-interest to “Get Brexit Done”. Yet it’s a question that, as the 10th anniversary of the EU referendum looms, has unexpectedly become both hyper-relevant and politically charged. 

The British far right is both expanding and imploding. This article has been written over a number of weeks during which Reform UK – Farage’s current party – has been going head-to-head with Restore Britain, the new far-right grouping founded by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, in the Makerfield byelection. 

At the centre of a bitter dispute between the two parties is a series of allegations about Farage, made in the context of last month’s revelations that he received a previously undisclosed £5m gift from the cryptobillionaire Christopher Harborne. 

Those allegations centre around an alleged “deal” that Ben Habib, Reform’s former deputy leader, claims Farage and Johnson made ahead of the 2019 election – a deal that saw Farage lay down his arms and, on that day in Hartlepool, stand down 317 candidates in key Conservative seats.

Habib began talking to the Nerve three weeks ago when he was still the leader of another far-right political party, Advance UK. In the course of our conversations, Harborne – who is now Reform’s biggest donor – filed a defamation claim against him. Days later, Habib announced Advance would “take a step back” to clear the way for Lowe’s Restore Britain. 

It’s been a busy – and confusing – few weeks, but the Nerve has sifted through the claims and counterclaims and gathered evidence, open-source information and firsthand testimonies to piece together the events surrounding the election in question – events that changed the course of British history. The cast of characters involved then are now at the forefront of UK politics once again. 

At the centre of it all is the sequence of events leading up to that day in Hartlepool, 11 November 2019. 

The Nerve has discovered that Farage was not alone that day. Among his entourage, evidence suggests, was a man who, at the time, was completely unknown to the British public, a man whose role in British political life is now under intense scrutiny: Christopher Harborne. The £5m he gifted to Farage is the largest donation to an individual politician in UK history and now the subject of a parliamentary investigation.

That day in Hartlepool was the turning point of the 2019 campaign. An academic at the time described Farage as the “kingmaker”. His sudden, unheralded decision to stand down his candidates paved the way for Johnson’s electoral triumph and the passing of his Brexit deal. One month later, Britain would finally and definitively leave the EU. 

This is the story of how. 

To outside observers, the Brexit party supporter in a puffy black jacket and pink – or maybe coral? – trousers was just another face in the crowd. 

A Getty Images photo, taken by news photographer Ian Forsyth, in Hartlepool on the day of Farage’s announcement, was published in the Guardian and by the BBC, but the figure in the background drew no attention. 

An open-source researcher only turned it up while hunting for photos of Christopher Harborne using facial recognition technology. Another independent researcher has confirmed the likeness for the Nerve. 

The figure is standing with other known senior Brexit party officers and staff, and insiders closely involved with the campaign. Even now, very few photographs of Harborne exist. But back in November 2019, he and the millions he’d already donated to the Brexit party had flown completely under the radar. 

It wasn’t just down to his slightly mysterious CV – Harborne’s a Thai dual national who also goes by the name of Chakrit Sakunkrit and who made his money in defence tech and cryptocurrency. In November 2019, his new role as the main bankroller of the Brexit party had not yet been made public. 

Even journalists covering campaign financing closely had never heard of Harborne, even though he had already given £6.2m to the Brexit party. Due to the nature of the Electoral Commission’s quarterly reporting, his gifts hadn’t yet been declared.  

A public school and Cambridge-educated entrepreneur, he set up businesses in aviation fuel trading and defence technology before investing heavily in crypto. The Brexit party’s former spokesman, Gawain Towler, has subsequently described how Harborne had immersed himself in the campaign data and had a desk in the corner of the Brexit HQ office.  

By the spring of 2019, Harborne was already playing a leading role in Farage’s party, according to senior Reform insiders and a set of WhatsApp messages that the Nerve has seen. 

It’s not known where or how Farage met Harborne – who had been, until then, a Conservative donor to the tune of £228,000 between 2004 and 2018 – but by 2019, we now know he was enmeshed in Farage’s political project. 

In May, Farage told Sky News that big Conservative donors were standing by, ready to donate, without identifying any by name. 

The set of WhatsApp messages seen by the Nerve seem to confirm Farage’s statement. The messages – screenshots that have been circulating among Reform insiders – are said to be from Harborne, who says he has “assured Nigel that I will underwrite/guarantee all the expenses of the campaign”. The problem, he says, is that “it does not look great if there is one major funder so we need to diversify funding” and he is looking for a favour. 

“I would like to ask whether I can gift you money to onward donate to the party,” the person writes to an anonymised third party, telling them “there are no tax or legal issues”. 

The Nerve has been unable to independently verify the origin of these messages but they have previously been quoted in a 2024 Financial Times report.

There is no evidence to suggest that this scheme was carried out. It would be illegal under UK electoral law for a donor to hide their true identity. 

Harborne, through his lawyers, Schillings, refused to engage with any of our detailed questions and requests for comments. In 2024, however, his spokesperson told the FT: “All of Mr Harborne’s political donations and disclosures concerning those donations, including throughout 2019, were made in full compliance with electoral laws.” The spokesperson did not dispute Harborne’s authorship of the messages. 

A spokesperson for Reform was quoted in the FT as follows: “The Reform party (formerly the Brexit party) fully complies with electoral law and all donations were duly declared.”

Harborne went on to be the Brexit party’s biggest donor. Electoral Commission documents show that Harborne donated more than £10m through 2019 and early 2020. 

Two weeks ago, the Nerve published its first story in this series, in which we forensically examined how the pattern of Harborne’s donations closely tracked Farage and Johnson’s public statements about cryptocurrency policy reform, specifically so-called stablecoins. Harborne’s wealth derives in large part from Tether, a stablecoin.

This week, the Nerve’s new evidence shines a new light on the sequence of events that preceded Britain’s exit from the EU, and Harborne’s relationship with Farage and later Johnson.  

In an interview last month with the YouTuber Maximilien Robespierre, Habib claimed that Harborne’s £5m gift to Farage had been part of a deal that saw the 2019 election “sewn up between Nigel Farage, Christopher Harborne and Boris Johnson”. He alleged that the election that led to Brexit was "a monetary deal" and that individual £1m payments were made to both Johnson and Farage to secure a Brexit pact.

Harborne did gift £1m to Johnson but not until three years later, in 2022, after Johnson had left office. There is no evidence to suggest any connection to Habib’s claim. It has also now been revealed that Farage received £5m from Harborne. Farage initially claimed it was to pay for a lifetime’s security but subsequently said it had been a “reward for campaigning for Brexit”. He denies Habib’s claim and wrote on X last month that his lawyers had written to him to demand an apology. Neither Farage nor Johnson responded to our requests for comment.

We have carefully weighed the public interest but believe that fresh evidence raises new questions about the events of November 2019, contemporaneous reporting of a possible pact between Johnson and Farage, and the relevance of Harborne’s donations to Britain’s departure from the EU. 

The week leading up to Farage’s shock announcement in Hartlepool was a frenzy of activity. The campaign was in full swing and all the parties faced a 14 November deadline to register candidates. 

The heat was on both the Conservatives and the Brexit party because there was a clear and obvious danger that they would split the Leave vote.

In September 2019, Open Democracy reported that the two parties had “opened channels” to discuss a pact between Farage and Johnson and that donors were standing by if a deal could be done. In fact, Farage publicly proposed a “non-aggression pact” to Johnson, but as the BBC reported, there were terms: “Mr Farage says he will not field candidates in any of the Conservatives' existing seats and targets if, in return, the Tories stand aside in more than 80 Leave-voting constituencies where they are unlikely to win.” 

And then, on 4 November, Donald Trump poured more fuel on the flames. Accosted by a journalist while about to board a helicopter, he said “Boris is the right man for the time”, adding: “they’re both friends of mine. What I’d like to see is Nigel and Boris come together.” 

Publicly, Johnson immediately rebutted any suggestion of a deal. But Lowe, an ex-Brexit party MEP and former senior Reform insider, has told the Nerve about frantic efforts that were made to broker a last-minute deal. 

He said he was ordered to “rush back” from the European parliament to meet named Tory “fixers” at what he described as a “secret meeting” in a Blackfriars townhouse owned by a Conservative grandee. 

Lowe is now the leader of Restore Britain, a rival to Farage’s Reform party, and at the centre of a cataclysmic schism on the right of UK politics, with the two parties currently at loggerheads in the Makerfield byelection. He has an evident interest in harming Farage’s chances. 

Nevertheless, Lowe’s recollection of the day and details about the meeting are precise. He has recounted the details of the journey, the location of the meeting and the individuals present. The Nerve has also seen printouts of what appear to be messages, produced by Lowe, that support his claim that he was “dragged” back to London “in a final attempt to convince the Tories to give us some concessions.” 

On offer, Lowe claims, were “seven peerages”; the Conservatives were attempting to buy them off. Farage himself said at the time he had been offered a peerage, and after the election he elaborated to claim that eight other peerages had been on offer and that the proposal had come from the heart of Downing Street. Johnson has denied all these claims. If that offer had been made, it would have been illegal. 

The Conservatives’ terms were that the Brexit party stand down their candidates in the 317 seats. But the Tories refused to withdraw their own candidates in Labour seats in return, a dealbreaker for Lowe and others. 

Lowe says they returned to Brexit party HQ, where Farage was brought up to speed. There would be no deal, he said. Lowe claims Harborne was also present at this meeting. The Nerve has been unable to independently verify this claim, and Harborne, through his lawyers, has refused to comment. Lowe describes Harborne as bullish at the time and says he even offered to fund even more Brexit party candidates to stand. According to both Lowe and Habib (who was not at the meeting), it was agreed: there would be no deal. “That was how we left it,” claims Lowe. 

Days later, Farage would concede to the Conservatives demands with no concessions, a decision that mystified even those, like Lowe, who thought they were in the know, or Habib, who was standing for election. On Twitter, rumours of a secret deal immediately began to circulate. 

But why had he thrown away his last bargaining chip for nothing? Farage was still publicly saying he wanted the Conservatives to step down from existing Labour seats. So why on earth would he give up the only leverage he had? 

And if it was a purely selfless act, it came at a very high cost: that single act pushed Farage into irrelevance and (relative) poverty. It destroyed the Brexit party, which sank into oblivion, and with it the money from powerful donors like Harborne.

It’s a question that has now resurfaced at the very top of British politics. Habib claims money changed hands, a claim that’s been met by legal proceedings and threats. Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader, has reportedly told people the Conservatives still “owe” Reform. And Farage? He isn’t answering our questions. 

Was there a deal? And if so, cui bono? Who benefited? And on what terms? 

For the party faithful – including the 317 candidates being stood down – Farage’s announcement in Hartlepool came as a bolt out of the blue. 

In June, the Brexit party had briefly topped the polls ahead of both Conservatives and Reform and although it had sunk since, it still commanded a make-or-break 10% of the vote. Candidates had been recruited from across the country and were ready to go into battle. 

Candidates who included Habib. He told the Nerve that he had no idea what had happened until he turned on the TV news. “We weren't even warned. There was no heads-up.” 

Lowe told the Nerve that the announcement had been “completely contrary to the discussion we'd had” and “came out of the blue”.

“There was no discussion, absolutely none at all, with anybody. It was a unilateral decision that Farage made. Apparently,” he said. 

Another Brexit party candidate told the Nerve a similar story. He too had only found out via a TV news bulletin: “I’d spent £2,000 of my own money on my Brexit campaign. And I found out about it on a TV press conference. It was horrendous.” He lost the £2,000 he’d already spent campaigning and it was a betrayal that still stings. “I just felt like cannon fodder … Nobody was answering the phone, it wasn't until two days afterwards we got a generated email saying thank you for your service, that’s it.”

Farage had signed the Brexit party’s death warrant. In the European elections earlier that year, it won 31% of the vote. When Britain went to the polls on 12 December 2019, fielding candidates in non-Tory seats, it had collapsed to just 2%. 

Not that it seemed to put off Harborne. Three days later, Electoral Commission records show he donated a further £2m to the Brexit party. Another £1.9m would follow over the next two months. And then suddenly cease. 

In late November 2019, after the stand-down, the Electoral Commission published details of Harborne’s donations. Journalists’ curiosity was momentarily piqued and the first brief articles would appear in the UK press, but it would be years until any scrutiny would finally come. 

This previously obscured chapter of British history throws light on how we got here, but also where we’re heading. Arguably, everything playing out in Britain today can be traced back to the consequences of that day in Hartlepool. 

The renewed focus on these events coincides with the fracturing of the far-right, which was, in many ways, foregrounded by this period. Farage moves towards the Conservatives, either by helping them out or by welcoming their ex-cabinet ministers – and party members to his right revolt, splinter off and form a rival. Not only did this chapter forge the catastrophic Brexit deal, but it also set off the dynamic that might split the far-right vote and keep Farage out of power. 

For Farage, 2019 was the end of the road. He’d lost his berth in the European parliament. The Brexit party was a busted flush. And in February 2020, Harborne’s donations ceased altogether. 

By the end of January, Brexit would be done. And so was Nigel Farage. 

For two years, Harborne’s interest in politics appeared to dissipate altogether, resurfacing only in early 2022 when he began donating to Boris Johnson’s Conservatives and then, when Johnson left office, to him personally,

But Farage needed money. That much is clear. For years, he’d earned a very comfortable living from his MEP salary and substantial expenses, even as he railed against the European parliament. That gravy train had now come to an end. And the Brexit party was over now, too, and with it Harborne’s donations. 

But if the Brexit years were over, the crypto ones were about to begin. 

In November 2020, Farage made his first public statements championing bitcoin.

Two months later, the Brexit party changed its name to Reform UK and in March, Farage officially stepped down. 

Shortly after, he joined Cameo, the site where fans can pay for celebrities to create short video messages. Videos from that time showed him no longer living in the £4.4m townhouse with a paid driver and security that businessman Arron Banks had paid for, but back home in Kent. 

As the Nerve reported last month in the first instalment of this investigation, both Farage and Johnson would go on to become ardent enthusiasts of cryptocurrency and in particular so-called “stablecoins” of which Harborne’s favoured Tether is the most notable example. 

Farage’s wilderness years would only finally come to an end in 2024, when he made the decision to return to frontline politics, stand for parliament, and return to the leadership of Reform. The now infamous £5m personal donation from Harborne was made within weeks of the decision. His election campaign would also be bankrolled by Harborne.  

In July 2024, Farage achieved a lifetime goal, winning his Clacton seat and becoming an MP, as well as leader of a party that had officially arrived: Reform UK. Within weeks, he was flying on board Harborne’s private jet to see Trump at the Republican conference. 

And within months, he’d be announcing Reform’s bold new policy at a crypto conference in Vegas: holding up a copy of the party’s draft “crypto assets and digital finance bill”, he announced that Britain would become a major crypto hub and political parties could take crypto donations. 

The Bad Boys of Brexit were done. Say hello to the Close Chums of Crypto.