Nigel Farage facing investigation by EU authorities over
lavish gifts from millionaire tycoon
Exclusive: Brexit Party leader failed to declare £450,000
allegedly spent on him by Arron Banks, MEP claims
Jon Stone
Brussels @joncstone
Nigel Farage is facing an investigation by European
parliament authorities over claims that he failed to declare nearly half a
million pounds in gifts from an insurance tycoon under investigation by the
National Crime Agency.
It was claimed this week that the Brexit Party leader has
been given as much as £450,000 in kind by Arron Banks, including a
chauffeur-driven car, rent and bills on a £4.4m Chelsea home, and lavish trips
to the United States to meet with right-wing politicians.
But none of the gifts, detailed in invoices seen by Channel
4 News, were declared on Mr Farage’s register of interests with the European
parliament, which is designed to prevent MEPs from keeping their conflicts of
interests secret.
In a letter seen by The Independent, one of the European
parliament’s quaestors – MEPs responsible for the body’s financial and
administrative matters – calls on the parliament’s presidency to “investigate
these apparent contraventions as a matter of urgency”.
The push for an inquiry comes days before British voters are
set to go to the polls for the European parliament elections, with Mr Farage’s
Brexit Party thought to be heading for a runaway victory with an anti-EU,
anti-establishment message.
“As you will be aware, the code of conduct for members of
the European parliament with respect to financial interests and conflicts of
interest, in particular Article 6(1) of the implementing measures, makes it
clear that members shall disclose their attendance at events organised by third
parties where the reimbursement of their travel, accommodation or subsistence
expenses, or the direct payments of such expenses, is covered by a third
party,” Catherine Bearder, the quaestor who is also a Liberal Democrat MEP,
said in the letter to Antonio Tajani, president of the European parliament.
Watch more
Banks ‘bankrolled Farage’s lavish lifestyle with £450,000
funding’
“I can see no reference to any of the reported travel or
accommodation subsidies related to Mr Farage’s US tour on any of his
declarations of financial interests on the parliament’s website.” She noted
that Mr Banks was “currently under investigation by the National Crime Agency
over the source of his funding for the Brexit campaign”.
Under European parliament rules, Mr Farage could be fined up
to around €10,000 (£8,800) through withholding of his subsistence allowance if
he is found to have broken the rules. He could also be suspended from “all or
some of the activities of parliament for a period of between two and 30 days” –
though his right to vote cannot be removed.
Nigel Farage continues to dodge questions surrounding
funding from Arron Banks. A well-placed European parliament official told The
Independent an investigation would likely lead to Mr Farage being fined if he
was found to have broken the rules. Last year, in a separate run-in with
expenses rules, Mr Farage had his MEP salary docked by more than £35,000 to
recoup misspent EU funds intended for the staffing of his office.
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The letter from the quaestor Catherine Bearder to European
Parliament president Antonio Tajani
Ms Bearder told The Independent: “Nigel Farage says he is a
man of the people standing up to a corrupt elite, but he has been less than
transparent about his lavish lifestyle. I hope there will now be a thorough
parliamentary investigation to establish why these alleged trips and subsidies
were not declared in accordance with parliamentary rules.”
Nick Aiossa, director of the NGO Transparency International
EU, told The Independent: “These revelations of Mr Farage’s US tour to attend
the Republican convention and meeting Trump indicate he has not been adhering
to the rules on declaring financial interests. The European parliament needs to
immediately investigate the matter.”
The Brexit Party has not responded to a request for comment
on this story at the time of publication.
Mr Farage told Channel 4 News “no comment” on their
investigation, but later told the BBC: “Whatever happened after the referendum
– I was leaving politics, it happened mostly in America, it had nothing to do
with politics, nothing to do with the Brexit Party, it was purely on a personal
basis. I was looking for a new career and a new life – it’s got nothing to do
with anything, it’s a purely private matter.”
However, Mr Farage remained an MEP and continued to draw his
MEP’s salary throughout the whole period, meaning the gifts would likely have
had to have been declared under transparency rules.
Asked if he had declared the money with the European parliament
authorities, he said: “Of course not, it’s a purely private matter,
non-political in absolutely every way.”
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