Farage revealed to be highest-earning MP

In addition to his GB News show, Farage received £16,500 from recording personalised videos on the app Cameo, as well as £4,000 for writing articles for The Telegraph….reports Asian Lite News

Nigel Farage has become the highest-paid MP, earning more than £1 million for work he does outside of Parliament. The Reform UK leader was paid £97,928.40 each month for presenting his GB News programme, which aired four nights a week prior to the election.

In total, he receives almost £1.2 million a year from the broadcaster, which also hosts a weekly show anchored by Lee Anderson, his fellow Reform MP. Farage, 60, now presents his own panel programme on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays in addition to his duties as an MP.

The figures were revealed in the first financial register of MPs’ interests of the new Parliament and show the MP for Clacton is vastly out-earning his parliamentary colleagues. In addition to his GB News show, Farage received £16,500 from recording personalised videos on the app Cameo, as well as £4,000 for writing articles for The Telegraph.

He also declared flights and accommodation for him and a staffer worth almost £33,000 for a recent trip to the United States directly after the state opening of Parliament. Farage’s trip to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee also followed the attempted assassination of his friend and US presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The Reform leader said in his register of interests that the purpose of his visit had been “to support a friend who was almost killed, and to represent Clacton on the world stage”. He was elected to Parliament at the eighth time of trying last month, overturning the five-digit majority enjoyed by Giles Watling, his defeated Tory rival.

Farage said it was normal for him to be on call for 18 hours a day and claimed the presentation of the register of interests was “deeply misleading”. “I am not ashamed to say that I have always worked hard at all the different things that I have done over the past 40-plus years… And I will continue to work at the same rate,” he said.

“My commitment to public service does not prevent me from having outside interests – nor should it.”

Anderson, who was re-elected as the Reform MP for Ashfield after defecting from the Conservatives earlier this year, is paid £100,000 a year for his GB News programme.

On the show, ‘Lee Anderson’s Real World’, the former Tory deputy chairman takes on a wide range of current issues and debates Left-wing guests about the culture wars.

Barry Gardiner, a Labour backbencher, received £600 for three hours of guest appearances on the channel. Barry Gardiner, a Labour backbencher, received £600 for three hours of guest appearances on LBC

The channel has been involved in a number of rows with Ofcom, the regulator, and in May launched a legal challenge against it, accusing it of “trampling” on freedom of speech. Ofcom had threatened to fine GB News for breaching impartiality rules in a programme that featured Rishi Sunak, the then prime minister, receiving a grilling from a Question Time-style audience.

The register of interests also showed Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, received a donation in kind from the Green Finance Institute worth £99,000.

The Institute is a state-backed organisation that raises cash for net zero projects, and has donated tens of thousands of pounds to Labour in the past.

Miliband’s entry read: “Providing policy support on the Labour Party’s National Wealth Fund, with a task force reporting jointly to me and another MP.”

The highest-earning MP in the last parliament was Theresa May, who stood down at the last general election and had made more than £2.5 million, largely from the speaking circuit. May was followed by Geoffrey Cox, who won re-election in Torridge and Tavistock last month.

He made £2.2 million between December 2019 and December 2022, working out at about £730,000 per year. In the past year, David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, has declared tens of thousands of pounds on the register of interests after regularly filling in as a radio presenter on LBC.

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