Nigel Farage breached the MPs’ code of conduct 17 times by failing to register financial interests worth £384,000 on time, the parliamentary standards watchdog has ruled.
The Reform UK leader did not add payments – including some he received from GB News, a gold dealer and Cameo – to the register of members’ financial interests within the Commons’ required 28-day period, Daniel Greenberg said after an investigation.
Rival political parties accused the Davos-bound Clacton MP, who has cemented a reputation as one of this Parliament’s highest-earning MPs for his work outside of the House of Commons, of “lining his pockets” instead of serving his constituents.
The parliamentary commissioner for standards concluded that Mr Farage’s failure to report the interests on time was “inadvertent because of staffing and other administrative issues”, and decided not to refer the matter to the Committee on Standards.
The interests he failed to declare by the deadline included payments from Google and from GB News, where he presents a show, and for speaking engagements for US-based global consulting firm Imperial Independent Media.
He logged six payments from GB News late, including one lump sum of £51,438 reported 36 days after the deadline.
Other payments were £91,200 from Direct Bullion, a London-based gold dealer Mr Farage helped advertise, and £17,173.76 from Cameo, an app and website service which enables people to ask their favourite celebrities or public figures to record personalised messages.
“Mr Farage has acknowledged and apologised for his breaches of the rules,” Mr Greenberg said at the conclusion of his three-month probe, adding that the interests in question will be added to the next register.
In a letter to the commissioner on November 12, the Clacton MP wrote: “I accept that I have breached this section of the Code and take full responsibility, and I would first of all like to say I am sincerely sorry.”
He said “this was an administrative error on behalf of me and my team,” and continued: “Unlike most Members, I have a very complicated and complex set of interests, including my work as a TV presenter and as a successful private businessman, most of which were built long before I was elected as a Member of Parliament.”
He insisted “there was no malicious intent to deceive or mislead you or the public in the lateness of these declarations” and that he would “ensure that my team and I meet the deadlines for declarations going forward”.
In a letter on December 2, Mr Farage also said: “I have been extremely let down by a very senior member of staff.”
A transcript of a meeting between Mr Farage and Mr Greenberg on December 11 shows the Reform UK leader saying he was “shocked” by the “gross administrative error”.
He told the commissioner: “You may say, why don’t I enter those things myself? Well I don’t do computers… So I rely on other people to do those things for me.”
He also complained the system is “not designed for people like me,” saying: “I’m not making any money as a result of being an MP, quite the opposite, I’m making it because I’m Nigel Farage and I’ve got other interests.”
Mr Farage is travelling to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, where he is scheduled to give a speech on Wednesday afternoon.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage is so distracted with tempting failed Tory politicians into his party that he can’t even get the basics right. He isn’t on the side of working people – he’s just lining his pockets when he should be standing up for his constituents.
“He boasts about making money ‘because I’m Nigel Farage’, raking in millions through various outside jobs. But he neglects to do the important work that hard-pressed taxpayers fork out for him to do.
“Labour will tighten the rules on MPs’ second jobs to make sure the public get the attention they expect and deserve from their elected representatives.”
Liberal Democrats deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Five Jobs Farage is spending far too much time jetting off to talk our country down in the US and cashing in from his GB News show.
“Just like his idol Donald Trump, Farage thinks politics is all about lining his own pockets not serving the people. We can’t let Trump’s America become Farage’s Britain.
“Farage should spend more time in Clacton and less time on Cameo.”
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