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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told a right-wing US podcast that there is “no money in politics” before running to be a Member of Parliament last year.
In newly-resurfaced comments from June 2024, while he was still reportedly weighing up whether to stand in the July election, Farage appeared on a pro-Trump online show, ‘Ash Wednesday’ with MAGA pundit Steven Crowder.
Crowder’s platform has been repeatedly sanctioned by YouTube for use of racist and homophobic slurs (2019), false claims about the 2020 election (2021), and for violating the platform’s harassment, threats and cyberbullying policy (2022).
Speaking freely to Crowder, Farage explains that as a broadcaster with GB News he’s been earning ‘good money’ for the first time in 30 years. He is paid around £2,300 per hour with the controversial channel, according to his current register of interests.
Farage adds that “people laugh when you tell them this”: “There’s no money in politics, there’s no money if you’re straight [i.e. not corrupt]…There’s no money in politics.”
“[I] had four kids to bring up, dependents etc…So for the first time in 30 years, right, I’m earning good money [and] I’m enjoying life”.
holding farage to account #reformUNCOVERED
While most the rest of the media seems to happy to give the handful of Reform MPs undue prominence, Byline Times is committed to tracking the activities of Nigel Farage’s party when actually in power
Contribute to our #ReformUncovered crowdfunderBut he then told Crowder: “Maybe there’s a historical opportunity in British politics…if anyone can re-galvanise the forces of conservatism in something that is coherent, consistent, bold, but ambitious in terms of the vision, then maybe I’m that soldier. So I’ve got a big decision to make.”
The Brexiteer’s constituents may raise an eye-brow at the thought of there being “no money” in an MP’s annual salary. The MP wage rose to £93,904 this April, from £91,346 when the anti-migrant politician was elected, and they can claim generous housing and travel allowances. The average salary in Farage’s Clacton constituency is around £35,000 a year.
Nigel Farage, who was recently crowned as Britain’s highest-earning MP due to his plethora of outside interests, frequently rails against “the political elite”. It tallies with his apparent avoidance of Parliament: a recent Hope Not Hate investigation found that 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 spoke just 45 times, compared 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, according to the analysis.
The Reform UK leader has also missed a swathe of crucial votes, including key divisions on planning reform, renters’ rights, and the winter fuel allowance.
And in May, Farage went on an overseas holiday while parliament was sitting, meaning he missed a debate on the government’s post-Brexit EU negotiations.
The former financier 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 since being elected.
Georgie Laming, Director of Campaigns at anti-racism group Hope not Hate told Byline Times most people would think that Farage earning over £90,000 a year as an MEP was a “significant amount of cash, and far more than the average person.”
“He’s totally out of touch,” Laming said, adding: “Farage is now one of the best paid MPs in parliament and declared more than £873,000 since the general election. With his multiple side gigs, including appearances on Cameo and GB news, it’s no wonder he never seems to have time to be in Clacton working for the people he’s meant to represent.”
Nigel Farage’s total earnings in his first year as an MP are expected to be over a million pounds, once all his financial declarations are in.
Naomi Smith, chief executive of Best for Britain added: “Considering that Nigel Farage would go on to trouser more than a million quid in his first year as an MP, this whinging will sound completely tin-eared to people thinking about voting for Reform UK, many of whom are struggling to put food on the table.
“Behind the faux bonhomie and un-costed promises he has no intention of keeping, Farage is the same man who made millions of British people poorer with his disastrous Brexit. He will do the same again if he is let anywhere near Downing Street.”
A Best for Britain study published over the weekend found financial insecurity was a key motivator among people now considering voting for Reform UK.
As a source who discovered the video put it to Byline Times: “Presumably, as he doesn’t want to be corrupt, he feels compelled to take the extra gigs to make up for his paltry £92,000 (+ expenses) job as an MP. Hence that lovely trip to the awfully globalist-sounding ‘Nomad Capitalist’ event in Kuala Lumpur etc…
“Perhaps, if [his constituents] want a full time MP, Farage should be up front with his electorate…and start campaigning for MPs to get a hefty pay rise. I’m sure that would land well with your average Reform/Reform-curious voter.”
Crowder has 5.7 million YouTube subscribers (though his interview with Farage got fewer than 150,000 views on YouTube), but he also broadcasts on the ‘free speech’ platform Rumble, which appears to be dominated by far-right and conspiratorial voices.
Nigel Farage and Reform UK were contacted for comment.
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