Nigel Farage admitted discussing the “liabilities” of returning to politics before the 2024 election but insisted he had “no intention” of doing so at the time.
Speaking at a press conference in Westminster on Monday, Mr Farage said he had spoken to then-Reform UK leader Richard Tice in spring 2024 about what would happen if he returned to lead the party.
He said: “You’d be a bit of a mug, wouldn’t you, to walk into a job and not find out what the potential liabilities were, and they were substantial.”
But he added that it “wasn’t a deal, it wasn’t an agreement, it was subject to if I came back”.
His comments come amid continued scrutiny of the £5 million gift he received in 2024 from crypto-billionaire and Reform donor Christopher Harborne but did not disclose to parliamentary authorities.
Mr Farage has argued that the gift was not connected to his political activity and that he “wasn’t in politics” between 2021 and June 2024.
The Sunday Times reported that Mr Farage negotiated a deal with Richard Tice, who was then party chief, in March and April 2024, to return as leader.
Under that deal, once Mr Farage became leader Reform would repay or write off more than £1 million in outstanding loans it had received from Mr Tice’s company.
Mr Farage received the gift from Mr Harborne in April 2024, according to The Guardian.
Asked about the reports on Monday, Mr Farage said: “Overall questions about money could go on for years.
“I had no intention of returning to politics or as leader of Reform, but in the spring of that year I did talk to Richard Tice about what the liabilities would be if I was to come back to that position.
“And you’d be a bit of a mug, wouldn’t you, to walk into a job and not find our what the potential liabilities were, and they were substantial.
“But without Richard, the party wouldn’t have even survived, so that was useful for me to know.
“But it wasn’t a deal, it wasn’t an agreement, it was subject to if I came back.
“For your clarification on this, that came quite some time after the gift, which is perhaps the important point.”
Later, he said he had been “bullied for month and months and months” to return to politics and “reluctantly, at the last minute, changed my mind”.
Mr Farage has previously said he had no intention of returning to frontline politics before June 2024, when he announced he would return as leader and run for the Clacton seat.
“From 2021 to the 3rd of June 2024, I was a broadcaster, I was someone that appeared on celebrity TV programmes, I was somebody that promoted some financial market products, but I was an influencer… I wasn’t in politics,” he told the Triggernometry podcast last month.
Newly elected MPs must register any relevant financial interests and gifts received in the 12 months prior to their election.
A parliamentary investigation into the £5 million gift has been paused since Mr Farage stood down as Clacton MP and triggered a by-election, which he is standing in, but would resume if he is re-elected.
Mr Farage has appeared to confirm that he was facing another probe over support provided by convicted fraudster George Cottrell.
His main opponent in the upcoming Clacton by-election is comedy candidate Count Binface after the major parties declined to take part in the poll, which they see as a political stunt.
Labour Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said Mr Farage’s comments on Monday had “blown a gaping hole in his excuse for why his secret £5 million ‘gift’ from a crypto-billionaire did not need to be declared”.
She said: “Farage has desperately tried to distract from his catalogue of scandals.
“But the embattled Reform leader has run out of road and must come clean with the public. If he had done nothing wrong, he surely would have explained himself by now.
“With grubby pacts, police probes, and support from a convicted fraudster – Reform are up to their neck in sleaze and they clearly think the rules don’t apply to them.”
