Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage Faces Questions Over Undeclared Helicopter Flights

Nigel Farage is facing questions about why he did not declare his use of a donor’s helicopter to travel around Britain for rallies. The helicopter, which was used by Farage as recently as Friday after local elections across Britain, is the property of a company owned by Lorenzo Zaccheo, a businessman who gave Reform £25,000 last year.

Farage was pictured in May last year getting off the helicopter in Kent after his party won the county council elections there. Data shows that it has travelled to and from other locations on dates when Reform rallies were being held. The helicopter’s movements in 2025 were recorded in publicly available data analysed by an investigative news site.

When questioned about why Farage had not declared the travel, Reform UK said the flights had been paid for at commercial rates and there was no undeclared registrable interest arising from those flights. The party did not respond to follow-up questions about who paid for the flights and whether they were paid for by Farage himself.

The twin-engined, 2009-build Eurocopter was used to travel to Birmingham on 28 March last year, the day Reform UK held a major campaign launch rally at Arena Birmingham. On the following day it travelled from Birmingham to Kent, which is where Zaccheo’s company, Alcaline Aviation, is based.

Farage was pictured that week speaking to the businessman at his company’s headquarters as Reform launched its campaign for the county council elections. A month later, on 2 May, Farage was photographed exiting the helicopter at an election party in Maidstone, Kent, after Reform swept to power in the county council.

MPs have 28 days to register flights costing more than £300 which are not paid for personally or by public funds in parliament’s register of members’ financial interests.

When asked why Farage had not declared the flights, a Reform UK spokesperson said the question proceeded from an incorrect premise. "The flights to which you refer were paid for at commercial rates. There was therefore no gift, donation, benefit, or benefit in kind provided to Mr Farage by Mr Zaccheo or Alcaline Aviation, and no undeclared registrable interest arising from those flights," they added.

The spokesperson stated that the fact a commercial supplier or its owner may separately have made a properly declared political donation does not convert paid-for services into a personal benefit or donation in kind. Zaccheo said Reform’s statement was accurate.

"We only know the number of passengers and their weights until the contract is signed and payment is received. I would never allow anyone to use our assets without payment," he said. The businessman’s Kent-based helicopter charter company specialises in events and private charter and has a fleet of three helicopters.

It comes after political opponents last week queried Farage’s claim that a return trip to the Maldives on a private jet linked to another Reform donor cost as little as £25,000. Farage has said a separate £5m donation was to cover his personal security.