Nigel Farage earns £144k from fan videos - but voters 'never see him' in constituency

Reform leader Nigel Farage has made more than £144,000 filming videos for fans since becoming an MP.

He sells personal messages on the US-based Cameo platform. In a single month he made £27,342. His outside earnings are detailed on parliament’s Register of MPs’ Financial Interests. The latest entries cover the first nine months of his tenure as the representative for Clacton in Essex.

He was paid a total of £767,564, including more than £280,000 from Direct Bullion, a gold bullion dealer. His outside earnings also included £359,462 from the TV Channel GB News, £40,000 for a speaking engagement from investment firm Nomad Capitalist, £48,000-a-year for a newspaper column and benefits and donations of £108,599.

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That covered £27,616 for the second inauguration of Donald Trump as President, a £15,276 trip to Palm Beach in Florida, and £32,836 for flights and accommodation 'to support a friend who was almost killed and represent Clacton on the world stage'. The register suggests that he has made at least eight trips to the US.

But he has not held one surgery for constituents. Payments for the personal video messages do not dip under £9,000 and he twice earned more than £17,000. He charges £71 for each 'shout out'; he has reviews from more than 1,700 customers.

He recorded a personal message at 6.50 am the day after the election, just a couple of hours after winning the Clacton seat for his Reform party in last year's election.

After seven failed attempts, he is now a member of parliament and earns has a basic annual salary of £91,346 plus expenses for his office and staff, and housing costs either in his constituency or in London.

He was paid £97,928.40 a month by GB News Ltd for 32 hours work a month presenting on its TV channel, equating to an annual salary from GB News of £1,175,140.80, before he stopped presenting to campaign in the general election.

He has since returned to that TV role.

Mr Farage disclosed one further trip to speak at the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels in April, putting the cost for the single night visit to Belgium for himself, a staffer and "security provision" at £9,253.50.

That trip was funded by George Cottrell, a former aide to Mr Farage.

He spent eight months in jail in the US in 2017 after he was caught in an FBI sting operation telling undercover officers he could launder money for them.

Last week, the Mirror's Ros Wynne Jones spoke to constituents in Clacton who wondered where Farage had been during his time as MP.

Campaign group HOPE not Hate says that in the past year the Reform leader has spoken just 45 times in Parliament, fewer than any other leader with a seat in Westminster.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has spoken 226 times. Julie Coleman owns the firm Julie's Alterations in Clacton.

"We all had a lot of hope for Nigel," the 68-year-old said. "To be honest, I haven't seen a lot of change since the election. I know he's been in America."

Nikki Barthelmy, 35, wanted to talk to her MP about fly-tipping. "And life saving rings too because there are no lifeguards on the beach here," she added.

Rachel Richards, 38, runs schoolwear shop Uniform 7. "He's not engaged with me as a local business," she said of her MP. "I've never seen him."

A spokesman for Nigel Farage said he had set up the first Clacton Business Surgery, helped raise more than £15,000 for local charity Sandy's Farm. He also gave advice in meetings with elderly residents losing their winter fuel allowance. He also writes a weekly column for the local paper.

He was on 'back to back visits' last weekend, according to his Parliamentary team. "He is very popular in his constituency," they said. The Mirror also contacted Reform UK for a comment