Nigel Farage has been accused of being ‘coy’ about naming who is bankrolling his new party, after claiming that he had funded it all through online donations.
Farage was probed by LBC presenter Iain Dale on how the Brexit Party is being funded, which led to the presenter trying to suggest it had ‘all’ come from the PayPal donations system on their website.
‘Well that’s the exciting thing, the most fascinating thing is we have done this all via the website. We have now had, and I haven’t got the latest figures, but we’re now over 70,000. So we have over 70,000 people who are now registered supporters of the Brexit Party and they have all paid their £25 online.
He added: ‘If you work it out, that’s a very, very good start.’
Turning his attention to the donation system on the Brexit Party’s website, Dale pointed out that donors giving less than £499 do not need to be disclosed, and ‘you have had a lot of them’.
‘How can you track who they are… how can you track that they are not foreign?’ he asked.
‘We’ve done all that!’ insisted Farage. ‘We know who they are’, he added.
But it is evident the party could not have launched without funding in the first place so Dale continued to ask further whether there were other donors.
A ‘coy’ Farage shiftily replied: ‘At this stage we have received one big donation.’
Asked who it was, the Brexiteer refused to disclose the financial support he had received, saying it would be ‘revealed in good time’, but that it would ‘not be fair’ to do so yet.
Presenter Iain Dale would not let it drop.
‘Why not? You have to be transparent about donations so why are you being coy?’
Farage continued to refuse to explain who the mystery donor is.
‘We will in good time.
‘But now that we’ve raised the seed capital to get the party off the ground, now is our opportunity to go to some of the bigger donors and ask for help.
‘I don’t believe in approaching people with big money and saying help us we’re skint, people who have been successful, entrepreneurs, will respect and organisation that’s helped itself.’
‘They know their name is going to be revealed… so why can’t you reveal it now?’ Dale continued to ask.
‘I haven’t asked that person for permission to do so,’ responded Farage.
He denied the large donation had come from Arron Banks, and was then probed on whether Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon had been responsible for the funding boost.
But Farage responded: ‘I haven’t seen Steve Bannon for a few months.’
The presenter continued: ‘So no input from Steve Bannon into this financially or in any other way?’
The Brexit Party leader simply replied: ‘No.’
The number of donations for the Brexit Party will come as a surprise to many, given the party has refused to disclose details of its manifesto until after elections.
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