Nigel Farage has been working as a paid brand ambassador for a gold bullion firm, in a third job alongside his roles as an MP and a GB News presenter.
The MP for Clacton and Reform party leader promoted gold on behalf of Direct Bullion on a podcast sponsored by the company in November hosted by a fellow brand ambassador and influencer, Rob Moore.
On the episode, broadcast last month, Farage said: “I’ve been working for Direct Bullion … I’ve been doing a bit of promotion for them, bit of advertising for them, bit of education for them, so you know I have an interest in this – declared.
“But I’m not doing it out of nothing … I’ve been doing this now with them for getting on for a year, but actually for the last five years I’ve been involved with financial markets newsletters etc, making this argument that you should give gold a serious thought and it is open and accessible to you.”
Farage argued during the podcast that gold was a good investment because there was no capital gains tax and people could put it in their pension pots. “Put it in the safe, keep it under the bed or have it stored professionally for you and pay a little bit of rent,” he said. Direct Bullion published a clip of the interview on its YouTube channel.
Farage’s role for the firm was not listed on the latest MPs’ register of interests published on 9 December but it is likely to appear soon. MPs have to declare all earnings of more than £300 in a calendar year within 28 days of receiving payment.
The Guardian asked the Reform leader’s spokesperson why it had not been declared so far. His spokesperson said: “Nigel will follow the rules for declarations in the usual way.”
The job promoting gold is likely to cement the Reform leader’s position as one of the highest-paid MPs. He has received £177,000 since July from GB News for his work as a presenter. He is separately paid thousands for social media work on Facebook, X and YouTube, as well as recording bespoke Cameo videos.
Agustina Oliveri, a campaigns director at the Good Law Project, said: “Between jetting back and forth to the States to cosy up to Trump, Farage has been flogging gold coins. He seems to be forgetting that his main employer is his constituents – many of whom will be financially struggling this winter.
“Is Farage an ambassador for Direct Bullion or Clacton? He’s got more jobs going on than Santa Claus this Christmas. It’s clear that tighter restrictions on MPs’ outside employment and tougher transparency rules are sorely needed.”
Since he became an MP, Farage has also made a trip to the US, paid for by the businessman and donor Christopher Harborne in July, worth £32,000. He was paid £40,000 for a speaking engagement at an outfit called Nomad Capitalist in October in Arizona in the US.
The MP recorded videos for Direct Bullion published on YouTube and tagged as a “paid promotion” earlier in the year. These were broadcast before the election apart from one video released on 24 July. He spoke about his work for Direct Bullion on the Triggernometry podcast, also sponsored by the firm, in August.
Farage was previously late to register his role as chair of Action on World Health, campaigning against the World Health Organization. The listing appeared in November, after he had taken on the unpaid position in May.
The Reform leader has been celebrating his party reaching more than 131,000 members on Boxing Day, which he claimed surpassed the number of members the Conservatives had when Kemi Badenoch was elected as leader in the autumn.
However, Badenoch accused him of fakery, saying the membership counter on Reform’s website was automatic and suggesting he did not understand the digital age.
Farage hit back by saying he had more than 5.4 million social media followers – far outstripping Badenoch – and he challenged the Tories to submit to an audit of the party’s membership numbers. The Conservatives have not revealed how many members they have.
