On The
Ground

Josiah Mortimer

Farage’s Clacton Connundrum

Angela Rayner resigned over her tax affairs, rightly and swiftly. The heat should well and truly have moved on to Nigel Farage. He had a lot to say about Rayner’s tax situation, but he’s not come clean about his own.

Farage repeatedly misled his constituents about buying a home in his constituency, later claiming that he misspoke and that his partner had bought it in her name. She paid £900,000 in cash. Did he give her the money or was it all hers? HMRC will be interested to know – as the answer could determine whether he owes stamp duty.

As Labour Chair Anna Turley said, “if what he told the public had been true, he would have been liable for tens of thousands of pounds of additional tax”.

It’s time for some facts and tough questions – something journalists have too often avoided when it comes to the Reform UK Leader.