Nigel Farage claims Russian spies hacked his phone to obtain details of his controversial £5million gift from a crypto billionaire.

Sources say the Reform UK leader became ‘intensely suspicious’ that he had been compromised by ‘foreign state actors’ after last month’s revelation about the donation made by Thai-based Christopher Harborne.

A party source said: ‘Only four people in the world knew about the gift, and so Nigel decided to submit his mobile phone for forensic analysis by counter-espionage experts.

'They concluded that hostile state actors, almost certainly linked to Moscow, had used “spear phishing” tactics to compromise his phone, email and bank accounts. 

'It bore all the sophisticated hallmarks of a nation state actor using destabilisation techniques in the run-up to this month’s local elections.’

Spear phishing is when hackers disguise themselves as a friend or colleague of the intended victim and send links to install ‘malware’, which then scours devices for highly sensitive information.

The source added that Mr Farage is likely to have angered Russian president Vladimir Putin by his support for Nato, while Mr Harborne would be on Moscow’s radar for joining former prime minister Boris Johnson on a trip to Ukraine to highlight the country’s plight following the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

Mr Farage told The Mail on Sunday: ‘These actions by Russia are deeply concerning and highlight the threat they pose to British security.’

The story about the donation first appeared in The Guardian. There is no suggestion the Left-wing newspaper was complicit in, or aware of, any illegal activity, but Mr Farage added: ‘This shocking revelation brings into question The Guardian’s judgment and whether Reform can cooperate with them in future.’

The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is investigating whether Mr Farage broke Commons rules by accepting the gift from Mr Harborne shortly before he decided to stand for Parliament in 2024. 

MPs found to have broken the rules can be asked to apologise in the chamber, or face being suspended, which could lead to a recall petition and by-election.

Mr Farage says he had no obligation to declare the gift as it ‘wasn’t political in any sense’ because it was used to pay for his private security when he was not an MP.

Mr Harborne gave £12 million in total to Reform UK last year. He previously gave large sums to the Conservatives under Mr Johnson’s leadership, as well as Reform’s predecessor, the Brexit Party.

Defence Secretary John Healey yesterday urged Mr Farage to explain whether any of the £5 million could have been ‘derived from transactions with Russian state-linked energy companies’.

In a letter to the Reform UK leader, Mr Healey sought assurances that AML Global – an aviation fuel company owned by Mr Harborne – had complied fully with all sanctions on Russian energy, and asked whether the war against Iran might boost the company’s revenues.

If the hacking claims are well founded, Mr Farage would be the latest in a line of senior politicians believed to have been targeted by spies working for hostile countries such as Russian, China or Iran.

In 2022, The Mail on Sunday reported that Liz Truss was hacked by agents suspected of working for Russia.

Ms Truss, who was then Foreign Secretary, was ‘ashen-faced’ when she was warned that a year’s worth of messages, including sensitive information about military strategy in Ukraine – had been compromised.

Mr Johnson was also hit by the leak of more than 2,000 files covering his time in Downing Street between 2019 and 2022, which hackers placed online last year.

The files included a reference Mr Johnson wrote for Mr Harborne in October 2023, in which he referred to the entrepreneur as a friend and ‘a long-standing supporter of Nato and Ukraine’.

A phone used by George Cottrell, a senior adviser to Mr Farage, is also understood to have been ‘critically compromised’ while he was working for a pro-Nato party in Montenegro. 

US spy sources are believed to have told Mr Cottrell that Moscow was behind the hack.

A source at The Guardian contested Mr Farage’s allegations about its journalism, saying: ‘This is an absurd claim and an attempt to deflect attention from legitimate scrutiny of his financial affairs.

‘Nigel Farage is once again hiding behind a baseless attack on the media rather than facing up to scrutiny from journalists and politicians. 

'He has repeatedly failed to answer serious public interest questions about the £5 million gift he received.’

Reform pledges to axe all tax on overtime pay 

A Reform government would axe all tax on overtime payments as part of a ‘hard work bonus’, the party says.

Under the plan, an uncapped personal allowance would cover all hours worked in excess of 40 hours a week up to a total annual income of £75,000 – covering 90 per cent of workers.

More than three million workers receive paid overtime.

The policy, which is estimated to cost £5 billion a year, is designed to appeal to the party’s growing powerbase in the former ‘Red Wall’ Labour seats of the North and the Midlands, such as Makerfield, where Andy Burnham is fighting next month’s historic by-election.

It comes after employment statistics showed workers in the North East, Yorkshire, the East Midlands and the West Midlands worked above-average overtime.

The party says the policy would be funded out of the £40billion of cuts a year it has pledged if Nigel Farage becomes prime minister, including capping foreign aid and ending welfare entitlement for foreign nationals.

Mr Farage said: ‘Today we’re announcing our bold new policy that will finally make work pay.’