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'Nigel Farage by-election win won't stop questions over Reform UK's finances'

'While Farage has spent his summer fighting with a bin, this Labour government has been working every day to bring back hope', the Labour party chair Bridget Phillipson writes

[Reform UK leader Nigel Farage during the launch of Operation Fortress]

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The investigation into Farage's 5 million gift has been reopened(Image: Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/Shutterstock)

Nigel Farage wants this weeks by-election to draw a line under the questions surrounding his and Reform UK's finances.

Spoiler alert: it does not. While he may have won a totally unnecessary by-election, the scandal hes embroiled in will not magically disappear.

There are still serious questions about the 5 million gift Farage received from Thai-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, and the different explanations he's given for it.

Was it for security? Was it a reward for Brexit? Was it in exchange for something else? It should be a simple question for Farage to answer yet his story keeps changing.

['While Nigel Farage argued with a bin, Andy Burnham got to work improving people's lives']

OPINION

[Minister for Women and Equalities Bridget Phillipson skewered Nigel Farage over his finances]

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Minister for Women and Equalities Bridget Phillipson skewered Nigel Farage over his finances(Image: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Shutterstock)

Questions still swirl over when Farage decided to return to frontline politics and whether this overlapped with the payment.

He has claimed the 5 million gift didnt need to be declared as it was received before his return. But that explanation quickly unravelled following reports that negotiations over his return were already under way before the payment was made.

On top of all of this, serious allegations have been made about donations involving convicted criminal George Cottrell and his mother, Fiona Cottrell, which are reportedly under Metropolitan Police investigation.

Farage and Reform could have provided answers to these questions. But instead, the country has been subjected to weeks of political theatre.

Unfortunately for Farage, despite his desperate attempts at distraction, the questions are not going away.

And Labour will not let him off the hook, because the public deserve to know where the money came from, what it was for, and why it wasnt declared.

Time is running out for Nigel Farage and Reform to come clean.

While Farage has spent his summer fighting with a bin, this Labour government has been working every day to bring back hope.

Our new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has already shown he can get things done in his first weeks in office.

He has hit the ground running, taking immediate action to give families and businesses more breathing space: cutting VAT on electricity bills this winter, capping bus fares at 2, and taking 20% off business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues next year.

We know there is more to do. But while Farage and Reform continue to be mired with sleaze, scandal and questionable finances Labour is fighting every day to build a fairer country, bring back hope and get Britain believing again.

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