Nigel Farage, the main intellectual force behind Brexit and the leader of the British populist right who leads the polls in the country, has announced his resignation from Parliament amid a series of financial scandals. But he is not leaving. His intention is to stand for re-election when elections take place and win, thus, with a popular mandate that reinforces his political position and establishes a battle line between his public support and his ethical and, perhaps in the future, legal issues.
It is a typical move of a populist leader. And of any populist. Farage himself has stated, in a video message, that the election will be "the people against the establishment". In his speech, the former Conservative MEP and leader of the isolationist Reform-UK party, which would currently be by far the most voted in the UK, has borrowed many ideas from Donald Trump's speeches. Some, surprisingly recent. If the US president spoke on Friday of the "resurgence of the communist threat in our country," Farage has said today that the attacks he has received for allegedly receiving selfless donations from businessmen - some of them accused of fraud, and residents in Thailand - "is like living in a communist country".
Farage faces two scandals, both linked to millionaires in the cryptocurrency sector who do not reside in the UK. The first comes from a £5 million donation (¤5.9 million) from the billionaire cryptocurrency entrepreneur Christopher Halborne living in Thailand, in early 2024, at a time when the Reform-UK leader was officially retired from active politics. A few weeks after receiving the donation, Farage changed his mind and re-entered politics with a program that, among other things, defended the interests of the 'crypto' sector.
The anti-European leader did not inform Parliament of the £5 million income because, he claims, it was "a personal gift with no conditions" from Halborne, which he has spent on security measures to protect himself and his family from the apparently constant aggression attempts he faces, including death threats "daily". The Conservative Party, from which Reform-UK has taken over the right-wing supremacy, has referred the case to the Parliamentary Standards Committee. The UK Electoral Commission is also investigating the case.
The other scandal involves George Cottrell, a former Farage associate, also a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and former advisor to UKIP (UK Independence Party, which the conservative leader founded before Reform-UK), who was imprisoned in the United States after pleading guilty to fraud. The accusation is that Farage received all kinds of assistance from Cottrell - personal, security, travel, hotels, social media campaign coordination - which he used not only for his own benefit but also for his political enterprises, according to the 'Financial Times'.