Nigel Farage pocketed £27,800 after flying to the US last week to address an anti-climate think tank with close ties to Donald Trump. He had also hoped to meet the president at his Mar-a-Lago complex in Florida, hoping to lobby the Trump administration in the week when the US president’s relations with Keir Starmer hit rock bottom over the Iran war.
The meeting didn't take place, but he still picked up a monster pay day. Since his election, Farage has received almost £1.4m in payments from outside interests. The Reform UK leader spoke at Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax lobby group based in Washington DC. that has vowed “to work closely with President Trump and his team in advance of the 2026 mid-term elections”. Farage’s latest transatlantic speaking trip, published in the register of financial interests took place a week ago. He addressed a powerful American group that helped raise £120 million for Republican candidates in the 2024 election.
The Club for Growth’s president told Fox News in November that as the country looks toward the mid-terms, his group “is very aligned with President Trump, and we’re especially in these contested races, we’re going to help him win”.
Farage has repeatedly been criticised for spending minimal time in Clacton, Essex, where he was elected as an MP in July 2024. He mentioned his constituency in parliament four times during his first year in the role. “Farage’s world tour goes on and on,” said Charlene Pink, campaigns manager at the legal advocacy group the Good Law Project. If you really want to represent Clacton, shouldn’t you actually spend some time there?”
Welsh Lib-Dem leader Jane Dodds used her conference last week to speak out against Reform’s toxic cocktail of 'hate and division'. “He’s over there right now, trashing our country and flattering the orange ego,” she said. “Peace is not secured by one country acting alone. The only path to lasting security is diplomacy, international law and cooperation between nations.” The former Brexit Party leader has consistently faced criticism for his lucrative trips abroad, often to give speeches to right-wing groups close to Trump. Since his election, Farage had made at least seven trips to cheerlead for Trump or attend events associated with the President, paid for by wealthy donors.
Nigel Farage at a party conference(Image: Getty Images)
They exceed Farage’s base MP salary of £93,000. He also receives £4,000 a-month for his column with the Daily Telegraph, and more than £300,000 a year as a presenter at GB News. In January this year, Farage blamed his failure to declare £380,000 of income from TV and speeches on "severe growing pains" since becoming an MP as he admitted: "I don't do computers".
He breached Commons rules 17 times by failing to register payments within the required 28-day deadline. Farage told the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Daniel Greenberg, that he relied on others to register outside earnings as he was not "computer literate." The late declared payments totalled £384,064.75 and included £17,173 from Cameo, an app through which fans can pay well-known figures for personal video messages. There were several payments from GB News, where Farage hosts a programme, and income from X. Other payments came from Google and Imperial Independent Media, a US consulting firm.
Despite the number and value of the interests, Greenberg concluded that the breaches were "inadvertent" and chose not to refer the case to the committee on standards. According to the Register of Members' Financial Interests, Farage is the MP with the highest level of outside earnings. Since the general election, analysis of the register shows he has brought in £1.39 million in ad hoc payments on top of his MP's salary.
Nigel Farage at a 2024 party conference(Image: Getty Images)