Reform MP refuses to say whether Farage should produce evidence for Russian hack claim

A senior Reform UK figure has refused to call on the party’s leader, Nigel Farage , to hand evidence to the UK’s security services to support his claim he was hacked by Russian agents. Farage has come under mounting pressure to substantiate the claim that a state-sponsored Russian hack was behind the disclosure published by the Guardian last month of a £5m gift he had received from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Labour and the Conservatives have both stressed the threat to national security posed by the Russian state. On Monday, Reform’s lead on preparing for government, Danny Kruger, claimed not to know the full details behind the hacking claim. Asked if Farage had reported his concerns to the authorities, Kruger told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t know … I’m not privy to that conversation and I don’t feel I can comment.” Asked if Farage should report any evidence he had, Kruger said: “I really am not the person to discuss the ins and outs of what’s being done in terms of the investigation.” He claimed the matter was private, adding: “There does need to be some kind of investigation into that. I’m not sure how he would want to do it. The whole point of this is that it’s a private matter.” A Reform source quoted by the Mail on Sunday said Farage had privately commissioned “counter-espionage experts” to analyse his phone – and that they had concluded it had almost certainly been compromised by Russian agents. …