Farage compares standards inquiry to investigations faced by fellow ‘outsider’ Trump

Reform UK leader dismisses criticism of his failure to register £5m gift as a sign of a ‘complainants’ society’ 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.

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