Nigel Farage

[44] On 18 November 2004 Farage announced in the European Parliament that Jacques Barrot, then French Commissioner-designate, had been barred from elected office in France for two years, after being convicted in 2000 of embezzling £2 million from government funds and diverting it into the coffers of his party.

The German newspaper Die Welt reported that the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, had spent a week on the yacht of the Greek shipping billionaire Spiros Latsis.

"[56] After declining to apologise for behaviour that was, in the words of the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, "inappropriate, unparliamentary and insulting to the dignity of the House", Farage was reprimanded and had his right to ten days' allowance (expenses) "docked".

[61] In May 2009 The Observer reported a Foreign Press Association speech given by Farage in which he had said that over his ten years as a Member of the European Parliament he had received a total of £2 million of taxpayers' money in staff, travel, and other expenses.

[95][96][97] He was trying to raise the profile of UKIP in Scotland ahead of the Aberdeen Donside by-election; the party at that point had no representation in the country, and took 0.91 per cent of the vote in the previous election[98] though it won its first Scottish MEP the following year.

During an interview with BBC's Good Morning Scotland radio show, Farage cut short the exchange, stating that the questions regarding the incident in Edinburgh were insulting and unpleasant.

[108] As of 2019, Farage continued to have fees paid to him via a limited company, Thorn in the Side Ltd.[109][110] On 12 September 2014, he appeared at a pro-union rally with Scottish UKIP MEP David Coburn ahead of Scotland's independence referendum.

[115] UKIP indicated that it would consider taking legal action were the party excluded, in contravention of established broadcast media rules, from televised Leaders' debates in advance of the election.

O'Flynn accused Farage of paying too much attention to advisors that "would like to take UKIP in the direction of some hard-right, ultra-aggressive American Tea Party-type movement", singling out the NHS and gun control liberalisation as particular issues.

[144] In response, Guy Verhofstadt compared Farage's referendum posters with Nazi propaganda and credited the Brexit campaign with causing a multi-billion loss in the stock exchange.

With enormous intelligence and chutzpah and a refreshingly unorthodox approach, he built UKIP up from nothing to become established as our third largest party and succeeded in his overriding ambition – to see the UK vote to leave the European Union.

[162] On 4 December 2018 Farage announced "with a heavy heart" on his live LBC radio show that effective immediately he had resigned his membership of UKIP, after 25 years as a member of the party.

Asked by Huw Edwards if he would consider such a partnership, Farage said he would be willing to work with anyone to secure a deal that gets Britain out of the single market, customs union and European Court of Justice, but said that trust may be an issue, stating: "both main parties have let us down very badly".

"[176] A month later, 32-year-old Paul Crowther pleaded guilty to common assault and criminal damage at Tyneside Magistrates' Court, where District Judge Bernard Begley ordered him to carry out 150 hours of community service and pay £350 compensation to Farage.

"[186][187] During the very early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, in March 2020, Farage wrote "protecting us all from an epidemic should be prioritised over the economy", and criticised the herd immunity policy which was being pursued at the time by Boris Johnson's government.

[188] In November 2020, Farage endorsed October's Great Barrington Declaration, which advocates focused protection of those most vulnerable to COVID-19 with the majority of the population allowed to resume normal life.

This provoked a major public backlash – donations to the service rose 3000% in the wake of the remarks[197] and a fundraiser on GoFundMe raised over £120,000 to purchase a new rescue hovercraft for the charity with a suggestion the boat be christened The Flying Farage.

[198] In November 2021 Farage published an op-ed in The Daily Telegraph contemplating a return to frontline politics, due to the English Channel migrant crossings and what he perceived as the Prime Minister's indifference to the issue.

[199] In 2021, Farage made videos on the Cameo platform and fell victim to several pranks intended to make him refer to various Irish republican slogans,[200] as well as internet memes such as Among Us and Big Chungus.

[205] In November 2024, Farage was not invited to speak at a farmers' protest outside Downing Street, with organisers citing concerns that his involvement could politicise the event, particularly in light of Brexit's impact on agriculture.

While some close to Farage claimed political pressure from the Conservative Party, the organisers stressed the protest was focused on farmers' issues, such as controversial inheritance tax changes.

And I'm talking far more votes than UKIP got back in 2015.At a news conference on 3 June 2024, Farage announced both his intention to become leader of Reform UK once again and his candidature for the party in the Clacton constituency.

[229] On 27 June, an undercover Channel 4 journalist secretly recorded members of Farage's campaign team using offensive racial, Islamophobic and homophobic language, also suggesting refugees should be used as "target practice".

"[235] Amid riots in July and August 2024 following a mass stabbing in Southport, Farage condemned the disorder, stating: "The levels of intimidation and threat to life have no place in a functioning democracy".

[243][244][245] Farage responded by accusing both major parties of failing victims over the years and a week later announced that Reform would raise money to appoint "independent arbiters" to examine gang rapes across Britain if the government refused to do it itself.

[265] In August 2024 it was revealed, through the Register of Members' Financial Interests (external) published by parliament, that Farage was earning nearly £1.2m a year from his work presenting on the GB News television channel.

[298] In a front-page story on 20 July, The Daily Telegraph reported that the Coutts CEO, Dame Alison Rose, had dined with Simon Jack, the business editor for BBC News, on the evening before he published an article saying that the decision had been "for commercial reasons".

[298] Within the document, an update to Farage's notes from 10 March 2023 stated "The relationship has been below commercial criteria for some time and upon review of Nigel's past public profile and connections, the perceived risks for the future weighed against the benefit of retention the decision was taken to exit upon repayment of an existing mortgage.

[311] In the same month, an investigation by lawyers Travers Smith, appointed by NatWest, found that the bank had acted in a "lawful" manner when it closed Farage's account, but had "failed to treat him fairly".

[316] In February 2020, an honorary doctorate of laws degree was presented to Farage by Jerry Falwell Jr. during Liberty University's weekly convocation for his role in Brexit and 'support of freedom' in Europe and the United States.

Farage at the UKIP Conference in 2009
Farage at the opening of the UKIP office in Basingstoke , in 2012
Farage in 2015
Farage in 2016
Farage in the European Parliament plenary session in January 2019 with Frans Timmermans
Farage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the US in 2018
Farage with Donald Trump in 2019
Farage in 2020
Farage campaigning for Reform UK during the 2024 general election
Farage speaking in the House of Commons , 9 July 2024
Farage speaking at a Trump rally in October 2020
Official MEP portrait, 2014