Reform activist admits Nigel Farage needs to find ‘better answers’ to questions about £5 million gift

Reform supporter and commentator Tim Montgomerie has said that Nigel Farage needs to find “better answers” to questions about the £5 million undeclared gift he received from Christopher Harborne.

Speaking to BBC Politics Live, Montgomerie was asked if Farage should take a break from politics, as the party’s ex-chair David Bull has suggested.

Montgomerie initially defended the gift Farage received from the crypto billionaire, stating that the cost of his personal security team over his lifetime would probably be “well over £10 million”.

When it first came to light that Farage had received the undeclared multi-million pound donation before he became an MP, he said Harborne had given him the money to pay for his security.

Farage later changed his story, saying that he had received the money as a reward for campaigning for Brexit.

Montgomerie went on to say that Farage’s recent BBC interview, in which he told journalist Sally Nugent it was “none of her business” how he spent the £5 million, “wasn’t Nigel Farage’s best interview performance, let’s put it that way”.

He said Farage “cannot hide away from this issue”.

“People do not normally get a £5 million gift, we get a box of chocolates or a bottle of champagne, that’s the sort of gift most people get,” Montgomerie added.

Montgomerie said that Farage “may not like that these questions are coming his way, but they are going to keep coming his way because people are puzzled by it.”

The high-profile Reform activist said “I think he has to find better answers to these questions so far, and he will do, because the parliamentary process is now underway and he will have to be open”.

Montgomerie said: “I think that’s what David Bull was getting at”.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward