Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey says he would have postponed a meeting with Nigel Farage last autumn if the £5 million donation connected to Farage’s Reform UK had been under investigation at the time. Bailey made the comments in relation to a meeting held in September, when he met Farage to discuss the Bank’s plans for cryptocurrency regulation. According to the Guardian, Bailey does not regret taking part in the meeting.
The donation at the centre of the dispute was later revealed to be linked to a Thailand-based investor, Christopher Harborne, and was first made public after an April report. The reporting frames the issue around whether potential concerns about the source or status of the funds would have affected Bailey’s decision to meet Farage.
Overall, the accounts describe a discussion about crypto regulation that occurred before the donation was publicly known, alongside Bailey’s view that he would have acted differently only if investigators were already looking into the donation at that time.
