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Nigel Farage has declared his largest single payment yet for work outside his role as an MP, after earning £270,000 for promoting gold bullion. According to the Reform leader’s latest register entry, he also earned £18,402 for an estimated six hours of presenting on GB News. Mr Farage continues to face questions about a £5 million gift he received from Thai-based billionaire Christopher Harborne. But something seems 'different' about the MP, he's not giving as many interviews as he used to, and he seems 'tetchy', says Michael Crick, political journalist. What does this mean? Shelagh Fogarty and Crick discuss. #shelaghfogarty #nigelfarage #reform #ukpolitics #politics #lbc
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0:00
Let's talk to Michael Crick about this, political journalist, the author of the book One Party After Another, The Disruptive Life of Nigel Farage
0:08
Michael, there is one MP who's made more than him in that same period, fractionally more, and it's Rishi Sunak
0:16
So is this all within the rules? It is within the rules
0:20
Well, in Farage's case, the gold seems to be within the rules
0:27
Christopher Harbourn gift of £5 million... Is a different question, yeah. That is now being investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner
0:34
and I think the Commissioner will almost certainly decide against Farage, because the rule is you've got to declare anything above £300
0:44
and £5 million is a little bit above £300. Does it not matter that it came before he was an MP
0:50
No, it's in the previous 12 months. Right, OK. Because the thinking is that money you've received in the previous 12 months..
0:56
It's pushing you to Parliament. And, of course, there's a lot of evidence of reform as a party taking great interest in cryptocurrency
1:06
And Farage is reported to have had a meeting with the governor of the Bank of England on this issue last autumn
1:12
So all of this is very important for the principles of declaration, transparency and openness
1:19
I think the Standards Commissioner will come out against him. And then there's the political dilemma for the MPs on the Select Committee on Standards and Privileges as to how they punish Farage
1:31
If they give him a suspension of more than 10 days, and that's the normal punishment, a suspension
1:37
then that will then trigger an election petition in Clacton. And if enough people demand a by-election, then there will then be a by-election
1:47
But that could backfire if those MPs have done all of that
1:51
in order to harm Farage, because I think it must be quite a good chance
1:55
that Farage would win a by-election, despite all this stuff about Harbourn's £5 million gift
2:01
and the extraordinary lucrative earnings from promoting gold bullion And it comes on the same day or this discussion comes on the same day that we learn about Donald Trump massive incremental wealth since becoming president for the second time
2:21
Is there any evidence, I mean, we know stylistically Farage is taking some elements out of the Trump playbook
2:27
but is this part of that, would you say, that he's just saying
2:31
bite me, I can do it? I think so. I mean, Farage is always nipping across the Atlantic
2:35
to see either Trump or friends of Trump. And he will have observed how Trump has made billions
2:43
from his presidency, utterly corrupt, the Trump regime when it comes to this
2:48
misusing his office to make billions. Now, I'm not saying that Farage has done anything corrupt
2:57
but I think the worry must be that if he was ever to become prime minister
3:02
he would use the job to enrich himself. Now, a lot of prime ministers do get rich, but they make the money
3:09
Tony Blair, being a shining example, and John Major, they make the money after their prime minister and Boris Johnson
3:15
by going round, writing books and making speeches and directorships and all of that
3:21
Now, the danger is that Farage would misuse the office of prime minister to that end
3:27
And now maybe we're tougher on these things than the Americans. Well, you've gone to the very place I was going
3:31
Is there any evidence that we have a stronger infrastructure against this
3:36
for people in office, to be clear, or seeking office, than America does
3:42
Well, I mean, in the end, Boris Johnson left office however many years ago
3:48
five years ago, as a result of the whole standards process. In that case, it wasn't about making money
3:54
it was all about the Downing Street parties and so on, and misleading the House of Commons. So there are procedures
3:59
And if he was prime minister and a standards committee said, look, you have failed to declare this or you've misused your office or any of those things, then I think they could be taken against Farage
4:11
But actually what I think is more interesting is the is the political effect of all this because reform are treading water right now They not doing that well Farage is avoiding press conferences Mind you Andy Burnham is doing even worse at that And he avoiding scrutiny by the press and other people
4:34
He did a whole series of interviews in the morning of Tuesday, I think, of last week, which were dreadful
4:39
Totally unlike Farage. Very tetchy, very annoyed to be asked about the Harbourn donation
4:45
and you know there's a there's a sense about reform right now that they're not doing well
4:50
that Farage is not being a good leader that that he's exhausted frankly uh that he probably needs
4:56
a long holiday uh physically exhausted and mentally exhausted well it was I think there's a good chance
5:02
about one in three that Farage won't be uh reform leader at the time of the next election it's
5:07
interesting you say that because in his conversation with Nick Ferrari he said uh when Nick asked him
5:13
do you really want to be prime minister? He was equivocal, wasn't he
5:18
He didn't say, absolutely I do. I think Farage wants to be elected prime minister
5:23
because that would be an extraordinary achievement. But I think the more he thinks about all the problems
5:30
that Starmer's had to deal with and Sunak's had to deal with and Annie Burnham now faces
5:35
that is not Farage sitting down and working out the intricacies of economic policy or foreign policy
5:41
He is basically a brilliant opposition politician, brilliant at telling everybody what's wrong with the country
5:48
and how it needs changing and inspiring people. But he's not a very good old..
5:53
He's never really had an executive job of any kind, apart from running a tiny metals trading business in the city of London
6:00
And that didn't do that very well, by all accounts. I mean, it's very early days yet on the Labour leadership change
6:06
and the Prime Minister change, because we're not quite there yet, are we? but even a week..
6:11
Well, I don't think we should keep footing about him. No, we are, we are. I know, I know, I know
6:15
Unless he's hit by a meteorite, I think somebody said the other day. Let's hope not, let's hope not
6:20
But it's been interesting to see how the Burnham victory in Makerfield
6:26
has been an event for reform hasn it It has been a seismic perhaps that too big a word but it certainly a shaking event for reform hasn it it has been a a seismic perhaps a too big a word but it certainly a shaking event for uh for reform which perhaps tells us something about the depth
6:42
and of strength of that party well i think makerfield showed two of reforms other
6:48
reform and farage's other weaknesses first the fact that they had such a dreadful candidate
6:55
who had come out with all sorts of sexist and terrible stuff
7:00
on social media over the years. And I think a lot of people in Makerfield thought
7:04
do we really want this guy as our MP? You know, he'll just embarrass us
7:09
And that, I think, illustrates the fact that there's a real lack of talent in reform's ranks
7:15
Even at the sort of, you know, shadow ministers, they can't even put together a shadow cabinet
7:20
because there are, I mean, a lot of the people who defected from the Conservatives are, frankly
7:24
oddballs, misfits, people that the Conservatives are probably rather glad to get rid of. And I think
7:31
the same is true when it comes to selecting candidates. So that's one problem they have
7:35
The other problem is that Farage's inability to get on with colleagues and this fallout that he
7:41
had with Rupert Lowe, who's gone off to form his own party last year called Restore Britain
7:46
and Restore Britain got an astonishing 7% of the vote in Makerfield in its first parliamentary
7:54
election anywhere and that seven percent was more than twice as much as the conservatives
7:59
the lib dems and the greens combined now lowe and his party pose a real threat to farage i mean
8:06
they had a huge bust up last year of with farage and the reform accusing lowe of uh bullying staff
8:14
and ended up with the police armed police turning up at lowe's farm and lowe is clearly on the war
8:20
path is not going to give up on the contrary makerfield will have added momentum to his campaign
8:25
and has the potential hugely to damage the the reform vote and this is all down to farage's
8:32
inability to get on with colleagues well thank you always a pleasure to talk to you michael
8:36
thanks very much indeed michael crick political journalist author if you want to check his book out author of the book one party after another the disruptive life of nigel farage
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