Nigel Farage earning £1.2m a year outside Parliament as Reform UK leader is revealed as highest paid MP
17 August 2024, 09:42 | Updated: 17 August 2024, 17:15
Nigel Farage is the highest-earning MP, according to the latest release of member's interests, having made almost £1.2m from work outside of Parliament.
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The Reform UK leader’s presenting role on the GB News earned him £97,900 a month, which is more than an MP's annual salary of £91,346, plus expenses.
Farage won a parliamentary seat for the first time after his victory in Clacton in July’s General Election as he led Reform to four seats overall.
During the general election, Farage cancelled his show, which aired Monday to Thursday each week, to focus on campaigning, but following his success in Clacton he returned to the channel as a presenter.
Figures relating to MPs' secondary employment, donations, gifts and other benefits, have been revealed in the register of members' financial interests.
The latest sums have shown Farage was also paid £4,000 a month writing articles for the Daily Telegraph.
The former UKIP leader also revealed that he had been given a donation of £32,836 by businessman Christopher Harborne to visit the US less than two weeks after the election in the wake of the attempted assassination of former US president Donald Trump.
Farage had recorded the purpose of this visit as a trip to "support a friend who was almost killed and to represent Clacton on the world stage".
A further £9,250 trip to the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels in April was funded by George Cottrell, an unofficial aide to Farage.
Meanwhile, the MP’s social media earnings were also revealed, showing that he made £1,550 through X, £853 through Meta and £16,597 from Cameo videos.
Lee Anderson, a fellow Reform MP, declared that he earns £100,000 a year, for work as a presenter and contributor on GB News.
The figures also revealed Sir Keir Starmer received tickets for 12 football games from August last year and tickets to a Taylor Swift concert in June.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, was paid £49,245 for working as a presenter on LBC from August 2023 until May 2024 before quitting the role ahead of the election being called.
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak had five helicopter journeys paid for by donors dating back to August 2023, with a declared worth of £47,141.70.
This the first register of members' financial interests to be published since the general election and it is designed to ensure openness and accountability in parliament.
Parliamentary rules require MPs to register any change to their registrable interests within 28 days.
