Nigel Farage MP: one year on the job

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“Do I want to be an MP? Do I want to spend every Friday for the next five years in Clacton?” Thus spoke Nigel Farage in an interview with The Times in February 2024, about which the reporter wrote: “His expression suggests not.”

Alas, just months later Farage joined Reform UK as leader and decided he did want to be a MP after all – even if he still wasn’t planning on spending much time in the constituency, Clacton-on-Sea, which elected him on 4 July 2024.

One year on from his election, Farage’s report card has come in. And it’s not looking good for the Reform UK leader… 

Turning up to speak in parliament – Grade F

In the past year, Farage has spoken fewer times in parliament than any other leader of a British political party with a seat in Westminster. 

Farage has spoken just 45 times. That compares, for instance, to 226 for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, 97 for Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, and 152 and 86 respectively for Green Party co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay. 

Turning up to vote in parliament – Grade E

Farage’s record of turning up to vote in parliament has been slightly better than his record of turning up to speak in debates. But only slightly.

He has mustered the energy to vote in parliament on 91 occasions. That’s fewer than Ed Davey (111), Carla Denyer (205), Adrian Ramsay (178) – even Kemi Badenoch (92) managed to best him by one vote. 

Rather missing in action, Farage didn’t show up to key votes on, for instance, planning reform, renters’ rights, and the winter fuel allowance.

Reasons for absence

Farage has had a variety of reasons for letting down his constituents and missing out on important parliamentary work. But none of them have passed the smell test… 

Farage has been on a number of foreign jollies since being elected to parliament, many paid for by his wealthy friends:

• Wednesday 17 July 2024 to Friday 19 July 2024: Farage attended the State Opening of Parliament, on 17 July 2024, and then immediately jetted off to the United States to “say hello” to his friend President Donald Trump, rather than represent his constituents in the House of Commons. The Thailand-based crypto investor Christopher Harborne generously covered the flight and accommodation costs, for Farage and one of his staffers, to the tune of almost £33,000.
• Saturday 14 December 2024 to Tuesday 17 December 2024: Parliament broke up for Christmas on 19 December last year. Not willing to wait for that, however, Farage also missed parliamentary days in mid-December, when he went to America to speak at a dinner, alongside the far-right media executive Steve Bannon, hosted by the New York Young Republicans Club, who covered the costs of Farage’s trip. While the Reform leader was in the US he took a flight to Palm Beach, Florida, to meet Elon Musk, courtesy of the convicted fraudster George Cottrell.
• Monday 17 January 2025 to Thursday 20 January 2025: Farage decided to go back out to America, with accompanying staff, for Trump’s inauguration when parliament was sitting in January, a trip again paid for by Christopher Harborne, who forked out more than £27,000 for it.
• Since the election, Farage has made at least nine trips abroad, including eight to the US, according to the Guardian newspaper.

Farage also decided to book himself a holiday while parliament was sitting:

• While most MPs decide to go on holiday during the parliamentary recess, to ensure they don’t miss important debates and votes, that didn’t deter Farage.
• In May, Farage went on an overseas holiday while parliament was sitting, meaning he didn’t turn up, for instance, to a debate on the government’s post-Brexit EU negotiations.

The Reform leader has also been raking in money from numerous second jobs:

• On top of his annual salary of £91,346 for being a MP, since 4 July 2024 Farage has raked in almost £970,000 from numerous second jobs, according to his register of interests.
• Farage has made nearly £135,000 from making personalised Cameo video messages and £280,500 from acting as a brand ambassador for a gold bullion firm.
• His most lucrative extra-parliamentary gig, however, is working as a presenter on the right-wing broadcaster GB News, from which he has made £394,900 in the past year – and caused him to miss a number of votes in the House of Commons. In November, for instance, Farage – despite being a vocal critic of government plans for a smoking ban – didn’t vote on the matter in parliament, because he was too busy presenting a TV show. 

Teamwork – Grade F

Since becoming a MP, Farage seems to have had trouble getting on with some of his colleagues.

147 days after the election: On 28 November 2024, Reform’s ex deputy leader Ben Habib quit the party, citing “fundamental differences” with Farage. The Reform leader seemed rather pleased about this, pronouncing: “The Sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray.”

246 days after the election: On 7 March, Great Yarmouth’s MP Rupert Lowe was suspended by Farage’s party over bullying allegations – two days after Lowe termed Reform “a protest party led by the Messiah” in an interview with the Daily Mail. Farage was furious with Lowe because of the interview, calling him “disgusting” and “contemptible” in leaked messages. 

336 days after the election: On 5 July, after terming new MP Sarah Pochin’s parliamentary question about a burqa ban “dumb”, then Reform chair Zia Yusuf resigned, saying that working to get the party elected is not “a good use of my time”. While Yusuf returned to the party – in a downgraded role – just two days later, his replacement as chair, David Bull, raised eyebrows for previously calling Farage an “idiot”. 

Constituency work – Grade F

Farage hasn’t been as diligent a constituency MP in his first year as he ought to have been.

In September, Farage announced that he wouldn’t be holding face-to-face surgeries in his Clacton-on-Sea constituency, as MPs are expected to do. Farage explained that the House of Commons Speaker’s Office had advised him not to hold in-person surgeries due to security concerns.

By early October, however, Farage had backtracked on these comments, after the Press Association reported that the Speaker’s Office hadn’t actually advised Farage against holding in-person surgeries after all. 

In November, around four months, after he was elected, Farage announced that he had finally “bought a house in Clacton,” in an interview on Sky News. As it turned out, the house was in fact bought by his girlfriend Laure Ferrari.

Transparently declaring his interests – Grade F

“Members must fulfil conscientiously the requirements of the House in respect of the registration of interests in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests,” stipulates the House of Commons’ code of conduct.

But Farage’s entry in the register contains a couple of interesting omissions, suggesting he perhaps hasn’t been as transparent as he should have been… 

Commercial fishing boat:

• Speaking to his GB News colleague, Christopher Hope, on 23 April this year, Farage said he is “heavily invested” in fishing, explaining: “I’m the only member of Parliament that has a financial stake in the commercial fishing industry… I own a commercial fishing boat… I have a skipper who runs that boat.” 
• Mysteriously, however, there is no mention of a commercial fishing boat on Farage’s register of interests, despite the rules requiring MPs to register “any financial interest or other material benefit which a Member receives which might reasonably be thought by others to influence his or her actions, speeches or votes in Parliament”.

Property:

• While MPs don’t have to register properties they own for “personal residential purposes”, they are required to declare any other property, if it “has a value of more than £100,000”, forms “part of a total property portfolio whose value exceeds £100,000”, or “provides rental income of more than £10,000 in a calendar year”.
• On his register, Farage declares that he owns two residential properties, one in Folkestone and Hythe and another in Tandridge.
• It’s strange, then, that, according to land registry documents, Farage’s company Thorn In The Side Limited in fact owns two properties in Folkestone and Hythe. One of those was bought for £499,995 on 23 October 2020 and the other for £575,000 on 31 March 2023. Both appear to be listed as “investment properties” in the company’s accounts.

So, where’s your boat and where are your houses, Nigel?

Adopting positions his donors will like – Grade A

Farage’s record of adopting and cheerleading policies his and his party’s donors might like is, however, much better.

Speaking at JCB’s global headquarters in Rocester, Staffordshire, in April, Farage trumpeted the company’s “new, innovative Pothole Pro machine”, adding: “We’re going to be asking a lot of questions, when we get elected in county councils, as to why these machines have not been used already.” This will have been music to the ears of JCB who, coincidentally, gave Farage and a member of his team a return helicopter flight last October, valued at more than £8,400.

More recently, on 23 June, Farage and Zia Yusuf announced a “Britannia Card”, whereby foreign millionaires could pay £250,000 to move to the UK and avoid paying tax on their overseas wealth, a policy tax expert Dan Neidle says will cost the UK £34 bn over five years. While this might not be good news for the public purse, it will likely have been welcomed by some generous Reform donors, currently residing in tax havens, such as Roger Nagioff, who handed the party £100,000 last December and lives in Monaco.