Boris Johnson announces a £1m donation from a former Brexit party financier

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Boris Johnson has announced a £1m donation from a former Brexit party financier to help him carry out his work as the former prime minister.

The huge sum that the Tory donor and crypto investor has given to the former prime minister’s personal company indicates that he has no intention of leaving politics in the near future.

The donor, Christopher Harborne, donated £5m to the Brexit Party in the months leading up to the 2019 general election, more than two-thirds of what the party took in in that period, and has also donated to the Conservatives.

The Brexit Party, now known as Reform UK, was set up in 2018 under Nigel Farage to pressure the Conservative Party to leave the European Union.

The private limited company set up by Mr Johnson does not do business and only acts as a private office to support him as a former Prime Minister.

According to the parliamentary announcements, Johnson continued to live on an estate associated with wealthy Tory donor Lord Bamford.

Declared ‘The use of accommodation for myself and my family from December 2022 to January 2023 with an estimated value of £10,000’, provided by Lord Anthony and Lady Carol Bamford. Lord Banford is a donor to the Conservative Party and Chairman of the JCB.

Since leaving office last September, Johnson has claimed more than £1m in speaking fees. In December, he scored around £300,000 for two separate speeches.

Mr Johnson promoted the blockchain, the technology behind the cryptocurrency, in a speech in Singapore on December 2 and received £253,880 for it.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives to give a speech at the Carlton Club in St James’s, London on Tuesday

(PA)

He called blockchain enthusiasts “pioneers” but also said he supports stronger regulation around cryptocurrencies.

Johnson announced he was leaving office last summer after months of scandal that culminated in more than 50 members of government resigning from office to force him to do so.

This week has seen renewed interest in the Partiget scandal, which has dogged Johnson from the end of 2021 onwards, after the former prime minister was alleged to have made a joke about the 13 November 2020 drinks event in Downing Street as the UK’s “most socially distanced party”.

The most recent record of an MP’s financial interests showed Mr Johnson had received the second highest amount of donations since the 2019 election at £2.2m.

He sits behind Theresa May, his predecessor as prime minister, who received £2.8m. Sir Keir Starmer earned more than any opposition politician at £799,000.

The largest single donation went to Sir Geoffrey Cox, the former Attorney General, who received £1.8m from the international law firm Withers LLP.

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