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TalkTV's midday show saw a tense moment between Julia Hartley-Brewer and Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice as they clashed during an on air debate. Presenter Julia delved into Reform Party leader Nigel Farage's £5m gift he received in April 2024 from crypto-billionaire Christophe Harborne.

Farage said the money was given as a "reward for campaigning for Brexit" and has previously said he was under "no obligation" to declare the gift because he received it before he was elected as Clacton MP, it was for his "personal security" and "wasn't political in any sense at all". Julia said: "I think it's not unreasonable to say that people might think there is something there. Would it not have been easier, if there was nothing to hide, for him to have declared this money?"

Tice said: "Well, damned if you do, damned if you don't! If he declared it at the time, it would have been all sorts of uproar." Julia interrupted and added: "You think it wasn't gonna come out. It was better if no one knew about it. £5m given to a party leader and we never know about it."

To that, he answered: "You make judgements in life and we may agree to disagree. I'm not saying it's a wrong judgement. At the end of the day, we've got a clear view, the [Parliamentary] Standards Commissioner will look at it, if the [Parliamentary] Standards Commissioner ends up agreeing with Nigel, I hope that a lot, a lot of people will apologise."

Julia then reminded the MP that the British public "do not take kindly to politicians who try to pull the wool over their eyes" and particularly to those who don't pay their correct tax or don't declare funding.

She added: "They don't like it, so why walk into that trap, if nothing was wrong?"

Tice, who ran property investment firm Quidnet Capital before entering politics, argued that was not the case when he went knocking on doors before the election.

He said: "They actually want successful business people who got a track record of making examples of building things. They want us to get into politics to sort out the mess, the policy wonks who have compeletely screwed up the country in the last few years."

The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner has launched an inquiry into whether or not Farage broke Commons rules by accepting the gift and not declaring it. Farage said he is not concerned about the investigation and said: "It's very unusual for someone to give up 27 years of their life to campaign for something.

"And this was given to me on an unconditional basis, completely unconditional basis. But frankly, it was given as a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years."

Tice told the presenter that the investigation "has not damaged our party", adding: "Last week on YouGov, we got our largest ever poll lead of 11 per cent."

And Julia said: "It doesn't matter."