Labour reports Farage's alleged Russian phone hack to police

Labour has reported the alleged hacking of Nigel Farage's phone and bank accounts by Russia to the Metropolitan Police and the security services.

On Sunday, Reform sources claimed to a newspaper that their leader's phone may have been hacked by Russian spies to obtain details of a £5m gift he received from a crypto-billionaire.

Labour has repeatedly urged Reform to provide evidence to back up its claim and now Labour chair Anna Turley has written to the Met Police and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to ask whether they are investigating the alleged hack.

Reform said it had reported the alleged incident to the "relevant authorities" but that is not thought to include the Met Police.

In a statement, Reform said it would "be inappropriate to comment further while investigations are ongoing".

Reform sources told the Mail on Sunday Farage had become "intensely suspicious" that he had been compromised by "foreign state actors" after reports emerged of the £5m gift from businessman Christopher Harborne.

"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."

Spear phishing is when hackers send personalised messages to individuals to trick them into installing malware or revealing sensitive information.

Farage told the newspaper: "These actions by Russia are deeply concerning and highlight the threat they pose to British security."

Labour and the Conservatives have called on Reform to hand any evidence they have to the UK's security services.

In a letter to Farage on Friday, Anna Turley said: "The alleged crime is an incredibly serious one with potential wider implications for Britain's national security, the integrity of our politics and public confidence in our democratic system.

"It is therefore essential that any evidence of hostile-state hacking or foreign interference is placed in the hands of the proper authorities for thorough and independent investigation."

In a letter to the Met and the NCSC, she says: "If Reform UK have not reported this to you, please treat this letter as a formal report of what appears, on the basis of media reports, to be an allegation of a serious crime."

The Labour chair stresses that her party "is not asserting that the alleged compromise did or did not take place".

A spokesman for the NCSC said: "We stand ready to support with any suspected cyber incident that is reported to us."

It follows controversy over the £5m gift given to Farage by Christopher Harborne in April 2024, two months before he announced he would stand in that year's general election.

Parliamentary rules state that new MPs "must register all their current financial interests, and any registrable benefits (other than earnings) received in the 12 months before their election within one month of their election".

The rules say "purely personal gifts or benefits" from family or commercial loans would not normally have to be registered.

But the rules say "both the possible motive of the giver and the use to which the gift is to be put should be considered", adding "if there is any doubt, the benefit should be registered".

The payment did not appear on Farage's declaration of interests and only became public knowledge after being reported by the Guardian newspaper last month.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has launched an investigation into whether Farage broke any rules.

Earlier this month, Farage said the £5m gift was "purely private" and "wasn't political in any sense at all".

He added that Reform had studied the rules "from every angle" and "there is no obligation to declare something that is an unconditional, non-political, personal gift."

In April, Harborne told The Telegraph he "wasn't expecting anything in return apart from ensuring his safety" when referring to the gift.

Harborne also said he gave the money to Farage "because of my great admiration for the decades of work he had done to achieve Brexit".