Nigel Farage admits he was wrong to say he had bought house in Clacton
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Version 1 of 5. Reform UK leader says he should not have claimed he was buyer of property that was really bought by his partner UK politics live – latest updates Nigel Farage has admitted he misspoke when he claimed to have bought a house in his constituency of Clacton, saying the property is in fact solely owned by his long-term partner. The Guardian revealed in May that the detached property in an upmarket part of Clacton-on-Sea was actually solely bought by Laure Ferrari, and when approached by the newspaper the Reform UK leader insisted his name did not appear because of “security reasons”. Farage had claimed to be the buyer of the property last November, in hope of dismissing criticism that he had not been spending enough time in is constituency. But on the final day of Reform’s conference in Birmingham, he admitted he was wrong to say he had “exchanged contracts” on the Clacton house. He told Sky News: “I should have said ‘we’.” Pushed again that he doesn’t actually own a house in Clacton, Farage added: “I should, I should have said ‘we’. All right? My partner bought it, so what?” He continued: “All right. I shouldn’t have said ‘we’. I should have said ‘we’. It’s her money. It’s her asset. I own none of it. But I just happen to spend some time there.” Farage added: “You know what? It’s a really funny thing in life. But sometimes we all say things that we perhaps shouldn’t quite have said. “I should have rephrased it. I didn’t want to put her [Ferrari] in the public domain.” When he was initially asked last November about how much time he actually spent in Clacton, he told Sky News: “I’ve just exchanged contracts on the house that I’ll be living there in – is that good enough?… I’ve bought a house in Clacton. What more do you want me to do?” He had also told LBC in January he bought the Clacton property adding: “That’s why you can see me out, often on a Saturday morning, out buying the essentials – limes, tonic, all that sort of thing.” Farage had been challenged earlier this year over whether the property had been bought in Ferrari’s name in a way that allowed him legally to avoid higher-rate stamp duty on the purchase of an additional residential house – given that he already owned other properties. He was also asked whether he was the ultimate source of funds for the transaction, either by gift, or loan and whether it was Ferrari’s sole property in the UK, which could then make her eligible for standard rate stamp duty. Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, said Farage’s tax affairs were “irrelevant” to voters. However, Farage had said Angela Rayner’s resignation over her tax affairs “screams entitlement” during his speech to the Reform UK party conference. The Reform UK leader declared a general election could be held as early as 2027 in his main conference speech. But when asked if he would publish his tax return if he became prime minister he told Sky News: “I think it’s probably an imposition too far.” When pressed Farage added: “Having said that, you know, at the point I become prime minister, then all of my business interests would have to be passed over to a trust anyway. So I think, frankly, that’s, you know, it wouldn’t matter.” He insisted his tax returns would be “nobody’s business”. It comes days after the Guardian revealed that Farage had been using a private company to reduce how much tax he pays on his GB News media appearances and other work outside being an MP. The Clacton MP, who is also paid a £94,000-a-year MP’s salary has in the past criticised people who try to avoid tax as the “common enemy”. But the fact that he diverts money away from his prime-time TV show into his company means he paid only 25% corporation tax on profits instead of 40% income tax, and could offset some expenses. The parliamentary register of interests shows Farage has made almost £400,000 from GB News since August 2024, for about 190 hours’ work. |