Nigel Farage was mocked for his trip to the Maldives where he claimed he had been "blocked" from entering the Chagos Islands

Nigel Farage's failed bid to reach the Chagos Islands was funded by a Reform mega-donor who footed the bill for his £12,500 seat on his private jet.

Thai-based crypto-currency billionaire Christopher Harborne gifted the Brexit MP a seat on a plane that took Farage across the globe to the Maldives last month. Farage - nicknamed "Nine Jobs Nigel" for his lucrative side-hustles outside of his job as a £93,000-a-year MP - claimed he flew to the Maldives with supplies as a "humanitarian aid mission".

But after posting on social that he had been "blocked" from going to the island, he was mocked for the stunt. Former Tory defence secretary Ben Wallace said the site was a "sensitive military base" and said granting access would be akin to having "open days around the trident warhead or open house for the SAS".

Christopher Harborne, who is also known by the Thai name Chakrit Sakunkrit, is one of the biggest donors in British political history(Image: Linedin)

In an entry on his Register of Interests, Farage said the "seat on return flight" to the Maldives cost £12,500. But questions have been asked if his video crew and members of his team were also gifted seats.

Harborne, who is also known by the Thai name Chakrit Sakunkrit, is one of the biggest donors in British political history. Official records show he donated £3m to Reform in the last quarter of 2025, after making a record £9m gift in the summer.

The size of his donations have prompted campaign groups including Spotlight on Corruption and Transparency International to renew calls for a cap on political donations. Farage has previously questioned the optics of politicians accepting gifts from donors. When Keir Starmer accepted clothes worth more than £16,000 from the Labour peer Waheed Alli, Farage said: "It's just a very bad look for somebody who said everything was going to change."

Earlier this year it emerged Farage was gifted paddock passes and hotels worth £10,000 from Abu Dhabi Government to attend the F1(Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The Reform UK leader flew to the Maldives to join a delegation carrying food and medicine to support four Chagossians who were attempting to set up a permanent base on a deserted island, as part of a mission to establish a colony in their former homeland. He posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, last month claiming that the UK Government is "applying pressure on the president and the government of the Maldives to do everything in their power to stop me getting on that boat and going to the Chagos Islands.”