Farage said he would need ‘a million a year’ to stand as MP in 2024

Christopher Harborne and Nigel Farage during a lunch in London in 2020. Photograph: MJ-Pictures.com View image in fullscreen Christopher Harborne and Nigel Farage during a lunch in London in 2020. Photograph: MJ-Pictures.com Farage said he would need ‘a million a year’ to stand as MP in 2024 Exclusive: Politician spoke to senior figures in Reform in March that year about covering lost earnings, sources tell the Guardian Nigel Farage told senior figures in Reform UK he would need “a million a year” to cover lost earnings if he stood for parliament in the 2024 general election, sources have told the Guardian, raising further questions about why he was given £5m by a crypto billionaire. Sources say the discussion took place in March 2024 – shortly before the undeclared gift was made by Christopher Harborne on 5 April, according to the Thailand-based crypto billionaire’s lawyers. At that time Farage believed he would be forced to give up his lucrative GB News presenting role, which then paid him more than £1m a year. According to one of the sources, Farage said he could not put himself “through the wringer” of standing and “end up skint”. He also said he was being “properly paid” for the first time in years. Farage has given a series of reasons defending his acceptance of the £5m, which was first revealed by the Guardian , including that it was for his security and a reward for Brexit. He has also said it was nobody’s business what he did with the money and he could “spend it on Ferraris” if he wanted. He has consistently denied he did anything wrong by not declaring the gift, saying it was entirely personal in nature, and repeated that he was not in politics at the time. The parliamentary watchdog has paused its investigation into whether the £5m ought to have been declared during Farage’s byelection campaign in his seat of Clacton. This will be resumed once the byelection is concluded, meaning he will still face its conclusions in the autumn whether or not he returns as an MP. Farage’s explanation has been undermined by details that have emerged about the conversations sources say he was having in the run-up to the election, and his own official roles. View image in fullscreen At the time of the 2024 discussions Nigel Farage believed he would be forced to give up his lucrative GB News presenting role. Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images At the time, Farage was Reform UK’s honorary president and majority shareholder. He was actively campaigning for the party and attending events in its name. The Guardian has now been told by three sources that in March 2024 he told senior Reform insiders that if he were to resume leadership of the party, and run to be an MP, he would need to be compensated for the financial harm of giving up his City career to spend 20 years campaigning and standing for election again. Insiders and donors were insistent that Farage needed to return and to take Reform into not only a 2024 general election but a 2029 one,