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With the Brexit Party leader mooted to take up the position of our Man in Washington, Byline Times has some important security and background checks for him.
Now that the veteran UK diplomat Kim Darroch has resigned following leaks about the US President and at Nigel Farage’s urging– and with Donald Trump openly saying that he would do a “great job” as ambassador – is it only a matter of time before the President’s pal Nigel Farage becomes UK ambassador to the US?
If it is, then Mr Farage will need all his famous tact, craft and diplomacy to conquer the greatest challenge of his life to date: the security clearance and background check.
First of all, he will have to be completely honest when answering all of the security, personal and business questions – with completely honest defined as not lying and not leaving anything out.
The following are some reasonable questions which should be put to Mr Farage as part of the process.
Financial Integrity
- Financial integrity should have forced Mr Farage to declare the £450,000 in expenses Mr Farage received from Arron Banks when he knew the Brexit Party leader was employed in the European Parliament. What happened?
- How did Mr Farage manage to pay up to £200,000 in EU office expenses and rent for an office in Bognor Regis that was rent-free?
- How did Mr Farage employ his then wife simultaneously as his MEP assistant in Brussels and as his UKIP office manager in Bognor Regis?
- As UKIP leader, Mr Farage was surely aware of similar misuse of expenses by seven other UKIP MEPs at the time. What did he do to punish or prevent this?
- Why did his Euro group only use £173,000 of EU expenses for Mr Farage’s failed Westminster election campaign?
Other Questions of Public Trust
- In 2010, Mr Farage’s name was mentioned in a media sting operation advising on how to circumvent electoral law by donating £25,000 anonymously to UKIP via ‘Global Britain’. What was the uptake on the advice?
- In 2014 it was reported that Mr Farage oversaw UKIP members being threatened, silenced, ignored or forced out of the party after questioning its use of EU allowances and donations similar to those above. Did he do anything to clear this up?
- Arron Banks and the Leave.EU campaign are both under investigation by the National Crime Agency for electoral wrongdoing during the 2016 EU Referendum. It would be a great help to the country if Mr Farage could discreetly reveal the source of his £8.5 milion Leave.EU donation. Has Mr Farage given evidence to the police?
- It is vital for an ambassador to be security minded. Why can’t Mr Farage’s Brexit Party PayPal funding system tell the difference between legal, permissible donations and illegal, impermissible ones?
Questionable Associations
- Why did Mr Farage meet Mark Deavin, of the British National Party, in 1997 just after he was expelled from UKIP for infiltrating Mr Farage’s party? Why was Tony “the bomber” LeComber, of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, pictured at this meeting after he had served three years in prison for handling explosives and given another three years for stabbing a Jewish schoolteacher?
- As a public schoolboy, why did Mr Farage allegedly sing Hitler Youth songs marching through Dulwich and reportedly tell a Jewish school fellow ‘Hitler is right: Gas them all’. Has he entirely recanted of these views?
- As president of the Euro Parliament Group, Mr Farage formed alliances with MEPs who wanted racial segregation, were previously members of neo-Nazi groups, were Hitler apologists, and who had previously been impeached for being funded by Russians. Was it for love or money that Mr Farage welcomed these men?
Foreign Contacts
- Was Mr Farage ever suspicious of seeing Kevin Ellul-Bonici in his EU offices, arriving with rucksacks stuffed with freshly printed propaganda from the Russian Embassy in Brussels?
- Ellul Bonici was uploading Mr Farage’s EU Parliament videos to YouTube, where Russian state actor RT was manipulating the video site’s algorithms to give him massive coverage. Is this news to him?
- Ellul Bonici and Russian nationals were captured on EU Parliament CCTV delivering propaganda to every MEP cubby hole against the Lithuanian President and Putin enemy Dalia Grybauskaitė. What was Mr Farage’s response to this?
- After the ‘Dalia’ inciden