Farage says Britain is a ‘complainants’ society’ as Reform funding questions mount

The Reform leader said his party would rebound

In an interview with the BBC, Farage spoke before Reform UK's annual conference, which begins in Birmingham on Thursday.

The Reform leader said a "whole ecosystem" did not want "new kids on the block succeeding".

JOE this week reported on Reform dropping to third in new polling.

While Farage accepted the party's poll ratings had taken a hit compared with last year, he said the party would rebound, and that it still had "every chance" of winning the next general election.

Reform's finances have dominated headlines through the summer.

Separately, JOE reported that the party has taken £20m from crypto investors since 2024, more than half of all its donations.

The two investigations hanging over Farage and Reform

Following Farage's re-election in Clacton after a by-election he called in the Essex seat, a parliamentary investigation into the £5m he received from major Reform donor Christopher Harborne was relaunched.

The Metropolitan Police is separately investigating whether payments to Reform in the weeks before the last election complied with donation laws.

That inquiry is examining donations given directly to the party by Fiona Cottrell, mother of longstanding Farage ally George Cottrell, and payments from a company controlled by Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice; the company received £1m from Fiona Cottrell in June 2024.

Reform has insisted it has always complied with donations rules. Both inquiries are ongoing.

'We live in a complainants' society'

Farage said he was not "involved in the transactions", but added that he "had been told it's her money", when asked whether he knew if the money donated by Fiona Cottrell had come from her son.

In a video clip from the same interview, he said: "I firmly believe I have broken no rules."

"The point is, we live in a complainants' society," he said. "If you complain about me, automatically that triggers an investigation."

Political parties were "constantly writing to all the authorities", he argued, leaving Reform "under investigation every day for virtually everything we do".