.png)
4 hours ago
1
The MPs’ standards watchdog has been asked to investigate whether Nigel Farage should have declared regular free support given to him by a US PR adviser who is now a Donald Trump official.
US filings show that Capital HQ, run by Alexandra Preate, helped Farage on more than 100 days in 2024 with organising speaking engagements, media appearances, political activities and travel in the US.
Preate and Capital HQ’s advice to Farage ended in February when she became an adviser to the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent. She is also a former press spokesperson for the former Trump strategist Steve Bannon.
The Good Law Project, a campaign group, wrote to the Commons standards commissioner this week asking why the support was not registered with parliament as a benefit on Farage’s register of interests.
Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, said: “Documents released by the Foreign Agents Registration Act [Fara] unit of the United States Department of Justice have revealed that Nigel Farage was in receipt of a range of hospitality and logistics support from US PR firm Capital HQ in the period between February 2023 and February 2025. Since becoming an MP in the last general election, Mr Farage has not declared any of this on his register of interests.”
Maugham highlighted a recent US disclosure that since late September last year Capital HQ and its staff supported Farage’s political activities in the US on an almost daily basis.
The code of conduct for MPs states that members must register donations worth more than £1,500, including “support in kind, including any of the following, if provided either free or at concessionary rates: advice or information services; receptions and events; training or development for the member or his or her staff; the services of staff or interns; the provision of office space or equipment; hospitality or travel benefits such as season tickets or parking.”
If an MP receives gifts or benefits with a value of more than £300 from a source outside the UK, they must register it if it relates in any way to their membership of the house or parliamentary or political activities, either free or at concessionary rates. Trips outside the UK with travel or hospitality provided worth more than £300 must also be registered – but if undertaken for the purpose of outside employment, such as a paid speech, that should be declared separately.
Farage has made at least eight trips to the US since he was elected as MP for Clacton-on-Sea. Some of the trips appear to be linked to his outside employment, but on other occasions he appears to have attended political events and made unpaid media appearances and speeches.
Maugham said Farage has made several trips to the US to carry out political activities and speaking engagements using his platform as a member of parliament and the leader of Reform UK.
Fara filings show that hotel accommodation in the US was paid for by Capital HQ in July 2024 to the value of $3,531.10 (£2,729.24) between 14 and 19 July at the Hilton Hotel Inn in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in connection with the Republican National Convention.
after newsletter promotion
The MPs’ register of interests lists the donor who paid for the accommodation as Christopher Harborne, a millionaire cryptocurrency and aviation fuel investor. Previously asked about this by the Guardian, a spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage is a politician, not an accountant.”
Farage’s spokesperson has been approached for comment about the letter to the standards watchdog.
It emerged recently on the MPs’ register of interests that Farage’s trip to Florida in December where he met the Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk was part-funded by his friend and former fraudster George Cottrell, who paid for his £15,000 flight. The Reform leader accepted the flight for his visit last year, when he was pictured smiling with Musk and the Reform party treasurer, Nick Candy.
The latest register of interests shows that Farage also benefited from a £27,600 trip to the US in January to mark the inauguration of Trump as US president, funded by Harborne.
