Nigel Farage hits back at claims he accepted more than half a million pounds from Russia: ‘Nonsense’
Former UKIP and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has called suggestions that he received hundreds of thousands of pounds from the Russian state “nonsense”.
Labour MP Chris Bryant told a parliamentary debate that he wanted to “point out” payments for Mr Farage amounting to almost £550,000, which he said came from the Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT – formerly known as Russia Today.
But former Ukip and Brexit Party leader Farage dismissed the claims and said he only received “two small appearance fees” with both “well under £5,000”.
Speaking in the House of Commons as MPs considered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bryant said he was “mystified” by some of the names missing from the UK sanctions list.
The former minister used parliamentary privilege to identify individuals including broadcasters “trotting out propaganda” on Russian television, others said to be associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime, plus those involved in Gazprom contracts.
Mr Bryant also questioned why Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s properties “owned through his subsidiaries, as it were, or members of his family rather” have not been frozen.
“I don’t understand why Arron Banks, frankly, isn’t on the list either. Even Isabel Oakeshott now thinks that he is an ‘agent of influence for the Russian state’.
“I simply point out that Nigel Farage received from Russia Today £548,573 in 2018 alone – from the Russian state.”
Chris Bryant
Farage said: “What a nonsense, sadly said under parliamentary privilege. I had two small appearance fees back then, well under £5,000. Not appeared since.”
He added: “I didn’t do anything with RT in 2018.”
Asked when he received the “two small appearance fees” he referred to in his initial statement, Mr Farage said: “Different years, a couple of bits of business in 2016 and 2017.”
On why Mr Bryant raised the figure he did for 2018, Mr Farage said: “I have absolutely no idea. I did do Fox News, I was a contributor, I did five days a week with LBC, all sorts of stuff.”
He added: “I don’t know where he’s dreaming this up from.”
Mr Banks was a major donor to the Leave.EU campaign in the run-up to the 2016 referendum.
Writing on Twitter, he also denied having “done any business with Russians” and claimed Mr Bryant had abused parliamentary privilege.
He said: “I’ve never owned any Russian asset or done any business with Russians. Full stop. It’s outrageous abuse of Parliament privilege. The NCA investigated the allegations and said the money for Brexit was mine.”