Nigel Farage Has Accepted £2 Million Since Becoming an MP
Article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.
The Green Party has accused Farage of being “focused on personal gain and public division”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has banked more than £2 million in earnings and gifts since becoming an MP, DeSmog can reveal.
Farage has come under fire in recent days for failing to declare a £5 million gift from major Reform donor Christopher Harborne prior to the 2024 general election, potentially in violation of parliamentary rules.
Despite this tax-free handout, Farage has used his time in Parliament to earn millions from second jobs, speaking events, and trips abroad.
DeSmog’s analysis shows that Farage has registered more than £2 million in financial interests since July 2024, when he was elected as the MP for Clacton.
His principal employer has been the right-wing broadcaster GB News, which has now paid Farage £700,000 since July 2024. The Reform leader – who presents a show on GB News – registered another £40,662 from the outlet last week.
This income has been received on top of Farage’s £94,000-a-year public salary.
He also listed a new gift from South African businessman Avi Lasarow, who gave the Reform leader three tickets to a boxing match on 4 April worth £1,749.
“Nigel Farage is a multi-millionaire who is out for himself and working for the interests of his super-rich friends,” a Green Party spokesperson said. “His whole career has been focused on personal gain and public division. He is failing his constituents and has no positive plan to help ordinary people with the cost of living crisis, housing or improving public services.”
Since becoming an MP, Farage has accepted £272,000 in gifts, including several private jet flights to the United States, and F1 tickets provided by the Abu Dhabi government.
“That Farage has amassed £2 million from personal earnings and gifts while a sitting member of Parliament should concern anyone who thinks an MP’s job is to represent their constituents,” said Kamila Kingstone, a senior campaign lead at Spotlight on Corruption.
“It’s a systemic issue and highlights a wider failure of the rules that are supposed to ensure integrity in public life. It risks blurring the lines between public service and private interests, creating the perception – and in some cases a reality – that some politicians are in it for themselves.”
DeSmog revealed in April that over 70 percent of Farage’s patrons are based abroad – including Harborne, the Thailand-based crypto investor who has gifted flights and accommodation to Farage worth £85,453 since July 2024.
Harborne, who owns a jet fuel supplier, has donated £22 million to Reform on top of the £5 million that he gifted to Farage before the 2024 general election.
His contributions to the party are now in jeopardy after Labour introduced new rules that cap political donations from overseas residents to £100,000 a year. In response, Harborne has committed to finding a loophole through which he can donate even larger sums to Reform.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he told The Telegraph – adding: “I don’t believe the government has a right to stop me, and they won’t.”
Reform UK is the UK’s leading anti-climate party, with several of its senior figures – including Farage – having denied basic climate science. The Reform leader has claimed it’s “absolutely nuts” for CO2 to be considered a pollutant, while his deputy Richard Tice has called it “plant food”.
“The government urgently needs to impose tougher limits on MPs’ second jobs,” Kingstone added, “so that the public can be confident that their representatives are working in the public interest rather than to line their own pockets.”
Reform and Farage were approached for comment.
A version of this article was published by The Guardian.
Article by Sam Bright republished from DeSmog.
Albanese awarded Spain’s highest civilian honour for ‘documenting and denouncing violations of international law in Gaza’
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, February 5, 2025FRANCESCA ALBANESE has been awarded Spain’s highest civilian honour for her work “documenting and denouncing violations of international law in Gaza.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez presented the Order of Civil Merit to the UN’s special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory at a ceremony in Madrid on Thursday.
In a post on social media Mr Sanchez said: “Public responsibility also entails the moral obligation not to look the other way.
“It is an honour to award the Order of Civil Merit to a voice that upholds the conscience of the world.”
Ms Albanese said: “Thank you, Mr President, for this recognition, for championing a Europe that belongs to its peoples, in accordance with international law — not above it or in defiance of it — and for solidarity, the lifeblood of the human family.
…
Original article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/albanese-awarded-spains-highest-civilian-honour-documenting-and-denouncing-violations
Britain quietly approves $11.85m arms licence to Israel despite Gaza ban
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has granted two new licences for the export of military equipment to Israel, including an £8.7 ($11.85) million licence covering “components and technology for targeting equipment”, the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has revealed.
The licences were issued despite the British government’s September 2024 suspension of such exports over fears they would be used in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. CAAT’s analysis of UK export licensing statistics for the fourth quarter of 2025, published on 30 April, found that the UK issued export licences worth £20.5 ($27.9) million in total for transfers to Israel during the quarter.
The most significant of the new approvals was an Open Individual Export Licence for “components and technology for targeting equipment” — a category of export the UK government had publicly suspended eight months earlier, citing the risk of use in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. When questioned about the licence, DBT replied that it “covers items for re-export from Israel, and the Government of Israel is not an end-user or ultimate end-user. This is consistent with our suspension”.
CAAT said the defence rested on a legal fiction. The watchdog warned of the risk of “auto-diversion”: a process by which Israel can fail to retransfer military equipment to its declared destination and instead assign it to an unauthorised end-user, such as the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), for use in Gaza.
Such a move would constitute a breach of the export licence and a potential criminal offence under UK law. British ministers have previously said they would revoke any licence should “any evidence” emerge that exported equipment had not reached its declared destination, but CAAT noted that the UK government makes no known efforts to verify what happens to its military exports after they leave Britain.
The watchdog’s concerns are not theoretical. In March, an investigation revealed that an Elbit-owned subsidiary in the UK had shipped dozens of drone components, including Watchkeeper engines, to Israel over an 18-month period.
READ: UK Labour approved more weapons to Israel in three months than Tories did in four years
Israel had failed to retransfer the equipment to Romania as required by the licence, citing force majeure arising from its assault on Gaza. The contract with Romania has still not been fulfilled. Elbit announced it would start delivering the drones only two days after Romania threatened to cancel the contract.
A second new licence covers components for military training aircraft, and related technology, for transfer to France, Greece, Israel and Italy — likely supplied by the US aerospace firm Moog for the M-346 Lead-In Fighter Trainer produced by Italy’s Leonardo.
The M-346 is used in every phase of advanced and pre-operational training for Israeli pilots before they fly combat missions in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon using F-16 and F-35 jets. Israel has caused massive devastation with F-35 jets across Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. Similar components shipped by Moog from the UK were recently seized by authorities in Belgium, who have since opened a criminal investigation.
CAAT’s Research Coordinator Sam Perlo-Freeman said the new licences exposed the limits of the British government’s stated policy.
“These new export licenses show just how willing the UK is to continue enabling Israel’s genocidal assaults, while staying within the technical rule of a vastly insufficient and ineffective policy towards IDF war crimes,” he said.
“The targeting equipment for which DBT granted a license, for transfer to and re-export by Israel, could easily be used in Gaza. Given Israel’s history of weapons diversion and illicit transfers, and outstanding questions about Elbit drone components failing to arrive in Romania, there remains a grave risk that Israel will auto-divert the targeting equipment to the IDF for use in Palestine.”
Perlo-Freeman explained that the British government was leaning on a system of declarations it has no power to enforce. “DBT is relying on end-user undertakings that hold no legal force in Israel, which the UK government does not check up on and cannot enforce. The exporter is technically in-the-clear, so long as it can’t be shown they knew the end-user undertaking was false.”
READ: ‘Cowardly’ UK court ruling permits F-35 arms exports to Israel despite genocide in Gaza
- UN experts demand release of Gaza aid flotilla activists detained by Israel
- 25 women killed, 109 injured in Lebanon since April 17 ceasefire, UN Women says
- Hamas’ al-Hayya says Israel using force to impose terms after son killed in strike
- China’s Legal Shield Against U.S. Sanctions on Iranian Oil
- US says it is blocking more than 70 tankers from Iranian ports
- Britain quietly approves $11.85m arms licence to Israel despite Gaza ban
- Iran says still reviewing US proposal to end war
- Lebanon committed to full ceasefire before talks with Israel: President
- US secretary of state says Washington expects response from Iran today on negotiations
- Turkiye becomes UAE’s 5th largest non-oil trading partner, Emirati trade minister says
- Understanding the EU Blocking Statute: Spain’s legal strategy to shield the ICC from US sanctions
- Israeli fundraising platform ‘rebranding as American’ to dodge boycotts over genocide
- Emergency declared at Libya’s Zawiya refinery amid clashes near facility
- Lebanon says farmland area roughly size of Chicago destroyed in Israeli offensive
- US opts for ‘reckless military adventure’ over diplomacy: Iran’s top diplomat
- ‘It’s all just bullsh*t!’: Kamala Harris takes aim at Trump over Iran war
- Israeli occupiers torch Palestinian vehicle, spray racist graffiti near northeast Ramallah
- UAE Gulf Marine Services profit falls 24% after Gulf war disrupts vessel operations
- The prospect of peace remains murky
- Man pleads guilty to assaulting US Representative Ilhan Omar
- Palestine marathon kicks off after 2-year pause due to Gaza war
- Epic nonsense: Trump shelves Project Freedom
- Egyptian fighter jets stationed in UAE, WAM reports
- Germany’s moral reckoning in Lebanon
- Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Washington to reopen probe into Shireen Abu Akleh killing
- Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it attacked US destroyers with missiles, drones
- Meshaal: Gaza to remain at forefront of resilience following historic sacrifices
- Iran accuses US of violating ceasefire by attacking tanker in Strait of Hormuz
- Saudi source denies report Riyadh blocked US Strait of Hormuz operation
- Jerusalem governorate warns over Israeli plan for settlement centre at Qalandiya airport
- Hamas urges US to stop Israeli attacks on Gaza following deadly strikes
- RSF commander affirms readiness to fight Sudanese army for decades
- Khamenei adviser says Iran has ended policy of “strategic patience”
- Families’ committee accuses Palestinian Authority forces of torture in al-Junaid prison
- Lebanon-Israel talks to resume in Washington next week: State Department
- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait lift restrictions on US military access to bases, airspace: Report
- UN warns foot, mouth disease increasing in occupied West Bank amid Israeli restrictions
- Poland voices outrage over Israeli soldier’s ‘disrespect’ of Virgin Mary statue
- Iran urges UN members not to support ‘provocative’ US draft resolution on Hormuz
- German finance minister says Trump’s ‘irresponsible war’ on Iran is hurting economy
- Iran says no final decision yet on US proposal conveyed through Pakistan
- Hotel bookings in Israel’s Eilat canceled to accommodate US troops: Reports
- Several Palestinian students suffer suffocation in Israeli military raid in occupied West Bank
- Israel to build Jewish heritage center at abandoned Palestinian airport in occupied East Jerusalem: Report
- EU lawmakers urge bloc to pressure Israel for media access to Gaza
- French lawmakers slam Eurovision over Israel’s participation
- Egypt’s president visits UAE to show support after Iranian attacks
- Israeli occupiers storm Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque amid tensions
- Iranian president urges unity, warns against attempts to weaken national cohesion
- Hamas leader’s son dies of injuries from Israeli strike in Gaza
Morning Star calls on London Mayor to sack Met Police boss Mark Rowley
The Morning Star is calling on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to sack Met Police boss Mark Rowley
Morning Star Editorial: Sadiq Khan must sack Mark Rowley
MARK ROWLEY is fast becoming a menace to democracy in Britain. The country’s most powerful police officer is daily transgressing the limits — on partisanship, on political interference, on responsibility to all citizens — which have traditionally bounded the public interventions of leading state officials.
Of course, those limits have often been honoured in the breach. But the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has discarded all appearances of impartiality and, indeed, truthfulness.
It has long been clear that he has a special animus for the Palestine solidarity movement. He has sought to restrict its demonstrations on the most specious grounds and arrest its organisers for entirely peaceful and responsible conduct.
After the most notorious of such crackdowns, on the demonstration in January 2025, Rowley hastened to the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which had been pushing for protest curbs, to receive an ovation from them the very next day.
By contrast, he has consistently refused to meet the organisers of the protests. He has been zealous in arresting peaceful objectors to the Palestine Action proscription.
Now he is deploying direct falsehoods in his attempt to rationalise a still more severe crackdown. He has accused the organisers of the huge demonstrations against Israel’s genocide of repeatedly seeking to march past synagogues.
That is a lie, as Rowley knows. The campaign has never sought to march past synagogues nor protest outside them in any way. Had they done so, it would indeed have been a matter of concern.
…
Continues at Morning Star Editorial: Sadiq Khan must sack Mark Rowley