As a fan of Marine Le Pen (he was once quoted in Private Eye as saying “I’ve had dinner with her. I think Marine wants to fuck me, you know”), Nigel Farage will be aware that France’s far right leader is unable to run for the presidency next year after being found guilty of using European Parliament funds for domestic political purposes. But might the Reform leader’s own plans for power be about to founder in a similar way?
The Financial Times reported last weekend that around €1.8million (£1.56m) of funding for Farage’s Say No To EU tour and other expenses relating to the Brexit referendum campaign in 2015-16 came directly from European Parliament funds. Documents seen by the paper appear to show the cash was handed out by Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), the now-defunct Eurosceptic grouping which Farage’s UKIP sat in during their rare forays to Brussels.
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If correct, that’s problematic for Farage. Not only is foreign funding not allowed in UK politics, the donations would also appear to breach EU rules, which expressly forbid its money from being used to fund election campaigns.
The FT has reported that it has seen EFDD expenses which included campaign meetings, leaflets and “posters depicting immigrants as a threat”. Many of the materials funded by the group carry the logo of UKIP, which Farage led at the time, while many senior party figures appeared at Say No To EU events.
Only registered referendum participants with a link to the UK – of which the EFDD was not one – were allowed to spend more than £10,000 on the Brexit referendum. While most of the EFDD expenses relate to dates before the start of the official campaign, items worth around €42,000 could have been used during the regulated period, including €12,000 on the website sonotoeu.com, billed in December 2016, and a trailer hired for €28,000 until the end of 2016.
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All in all, Farage may be facing questions in three areas – whether foreign funding was used in UKIP’s Brexit campaigning, whether undisclosed funding contributed to the campaign, and a possible EU probe into its cash being channelled into paying for a national referendum.
Questioned by the FT, a spokesman for Farage tetchily said the claims were “utterly baseless and without merit” and that “10 years on from the historic vote to leave the EU, the Financial Times are [sic] still intent on fighting the battles of yesterday”.
Still – might it be time for another dinner for Farage to get some advice from his old pal Marine?
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