An old video has resurfaced of Nigel Farage waving cash around boasting about how little work he has to do as a Member of European Parliament to earn his money.
Farage, who had his salary docked for misspending EU funds last year, is filmed holding a wad of cash, and boasting to cameras: “Everyone’s a winner!”
He says: “That represents four working days and one journey.”
Asked about how much it represents in English money, he says gleefully: “We’re talking about £1,900.”
He proudly proclaims: “It’s a good job this!”
The video has been shared again thousands of times by pro-EU supporters on social media, who have said that the Brexit Party leader’s history is “suddenly catching up with him”.
The campaigners are repromoting the video, claiming Farage will want it “buried until after the European elections”.
While Farage appeared in the BBC News interview to show how much money was on offer to MEPs at the European Parliament, campaigners are reusing the footage to demonstrate how much money he has claimed for poor attendance.
One post from an anti-Brexit Facebook page brands him a “conman.”
He is ranked 745th out of the 751 politicians for the number of votes he has attended, according to Vote Watch Europe, and recently shrugged off having attended just one meeting of the EU fisheries committee out of 43.
Despite championing the voices of fishermen in the Brexit campaign, he claimed attending the meetings was pointless.
In the clip he also boasts about how much money you could make paying your wife as a secretary – something he went on to do.
He continued: “It’s a good job this. I worked it out that because so much of what you get is after tax that if you used the secretarial allowances to pay your wife on top of all the other games you play I reckon this job in sterling terms is worth over £250,000 a year to you – that is what you would need to earn working for Goldman Sachs or someone like that.”
Farage defended paying his German wife, claiming she had a “modest salary” for “being available seven days a week”, and that no-one else would want the role.
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Nigel Farage had his salary docked by £35,500 last year after an investigation found he had misspent public funds by using it on staffing his political party. The European Parliament deemed it a conflict of interest.
He had previously bemoaned that he was “skint” – despite being an MEP since 1999, having had roles within UKIP and now the Brexit Party, as well as a job presenting LBC Radio and carrying out tours in the UK and overseas.
“There’s no money in politics, particularly doing it the way I’ve done it – 20 years of spending more than you earn,” he told the Daily Mail.
Earlier this year he refused to disclose who had paid for his private jet between London and Strasbourg, claiming he couldn’t remember how much it cost to use it.
This video resurfacing follows a leak of a photograph showing Nigel Farage looking gleeful on European referendum night, as he points to the value of the pound plummeting.
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