£842,000 - give or take a few hundred quid

It did not take long for the merciless and “take no prisoners” style of media inquisition to put Angela Rayner into the shadows of public life. It has taken even less time for the same style of journalism to focus on another high profile Member of Parliament.

There is no point in trying to decide in this piece if Nigel Paul Farage has contravened any regulations on stamp duty on a house his partner paid a reputed £885,000 for in Clacton, his Parliamentary constituency. That is a matter for the Parliamentary ethics body, Her Majesty Revenue and Customs and if necessary a boast of barristers. All of whom are experts in this highly specialised field of taxation. Then of course, there is one of the fiercest courts in the country that will deal with this in the short term. That is the combined power of the media and public opinion. The ballot box and its judgement will have to wait until 2029 which is in the long term bearing in mind that a week in politics is a long time.

The questions raised by the media on this issue have managed to rattle the otherwise impervious exterior of the Right Honourable Member for Clacton.

Another question that riles him to the point where his temporal veins are set a pumpin’ is about the disclosure of his personal tax returns.

Laura Kuensberg (BBC 1 September 25) asked if on his path to 10 Downing Street if he would publish his tax returns.

“I haven’t personally published my own tax returns. Personally, I think that’s an intrusion too far.”

When his various business interests were mentioned his reply was:

“All my company returns are of course filed every year with Companies House and are there for all to see.”

A check on the Companies House showed his name listed against seven companies past and present. Remove the companies he is recorded as having resigned from and that leaves five in which he has an active interest. None of these five companies have anything filed in the form of annual accounts. This is due to timing. As all of these five companies were incorporated in the last twelve months they do not have any statutory requirement to file accounts until 2026.

Beth Rigby of Sky News asked Nigel Farage the same question as Laura Kuensberg. Goodness me how those temporal veins pulsed when he became visibly agitated.

“I think it’s probably an imposition too far and it’s nobody’s business.”

That well and truly closed the door on the public seeing his tax returns for the time being.

There is another place where there is information on “interests” MPs have outside of Parliament and their value. It is the “Register of members’ Interests”.

Every Member of Parliament (MP) has to register amounts of any income they receive over and above their annual Parliamentary salary. Currently an MP’s basic salary is £93,904 (Pay and expenses for MPs - UK Parliament). A salary the great majority of the British public would appreciate receiving as the current average salary for the whole of the UK which is £37,700 (Office of National Statistics website accessed 10th September 2025).

The entries in this register must show the amounts involved, when they were accrued, when they were paid, the nature of the work and how many hours work were involved. All such interests must be registered within 28 days of the date they were accrued or the date they were paid depending on which date is the earliest.

All of this information for every one of the 650 MPs sitting in the House of Commons is available for free to anyone who wants to check how much their own or any other MP is making from outside work and from gifts.

As of 10th September 2025, Nigel Farage declared 46 sources of income. All of this income came from corporations of varying sizes and was received since his election to Parliament in July 24 to as recently as 1st April 25. Those earnings from extra-curricular activities come to a whopping and eye watering total value of approximately £842,000. That is nine times his basic Parliamentary salary and twenty two times the national average salary mentioned earlier. Coincidentally, that value is not far short of the £885,000 the media are claiming was the cost of the house his partner bought in Clacton.

For the three speaking fees he his hourly rate ranged from £130 to £4,000 per hour. Social media work earned him between £12 and £695 per hour. Commentating and presenting on TV was worth between £1,200 and £3,000 per hour. In December 2024 he was paid £189,300 for being a brand ambassador for a company name as “Direct Bullion” for an estimated four hours of work. That is more than twice his basic parliamentary salary and five times the national average salary. In January 2024 the payment he received from the same company for the same amount of work was halved to £91,200.

Donut charts are quite easy on spreadsheet software.

Pie charts are useful to show how big the pieces of the pie are.

In addition to the above fees there is a total of approximately £64,000 declared as “gifts, benefits and hospitality from UK sources” and “travel costs for visits outside the UK”. The largest amount in this category came from Christopher Harborne, the Thai crypto currency dealer, investor and political broker. It was £27,600 received in January 2025 for travel in America about the time of the inauguration of The President. The second largest amount is £15,000 from George Cottrell for internal flights in America in December 2024 for “private meetings”.

While preparing this piece the Register of Members’ interests for Nigel Farage was checked frequently and it had not been updated between 7th September and 11th September 2025 to show any items for May to August 2025.

Maybe he took a break from all of his extra-curricular activities for the summer while moving into his partner’s new address in Clacton?