Interviewer: Do you think that the defeat in Makerfield was anything to do with your admission that you were given five million pounds by a crypto billionaire?
Nigel Farage: Sorry, no one. No one cares, apart from the media, no one cares. No one cares at all.
Interviewer: The Parliamentary Standards Watchdog care, because they are investigating.
Nigel Farage: Well, they are, you’re right. There’s been a complaint received. Complaint from the Conservative Party Chairman. They’re investigating it. We’ll see what they say. I’m absolutely convinced I’ve done nothing wrong in any way at all. I also know that since I was elected as an MP, I have taken zero personal expenses. Uh, I’m very careful and very cautious about these things. I believe it to be a wholly private matter. The Standards Commissioner may take a different view.
Interviewer: You had already given an interview about the possibility of becoming an MP, and then you accepted the gift, is that right?
Nigel Farage: Yeah, and after that, I said, after that I said I will not stand in this election. And I was pretty clear, when a snap election was called, that I wasn’t going to do it. I did change my mind subsequently.
Interviewer: You said that that five million pounds was for, um, lifelong security for you. You’ve also said it was a gift. Can you just clarify—
Nigel Farage: No, no, no, no, no. Let’s be clear. Let’s be clear. It’s an unconditional gift, I can spend it on cars if I want to, it’s entirely up to me, right? But, but there is a specific reason for this. I have been physically the most attacked and endangered politician in Britain for now well over a decade. At every stage during that time, when I’ve asked the state to help and support, most times they point-blank refused. I know because of division in politics that I will need protection until the day that I die. And that is my intention, that’s what it’s for, and it means, frankly, I can get on with my job and not worry about the long term.
Interviewer: So, Mr. Farage, how much of that money have you spent?
Nigel Farage: Uh, look, it’s literally none of your business. If I’ve given it to charity, if—but the truth is I haven’t. I know what it’s there for.
Interviewer: You haven’t spent any of it?
Nigel Farage: It’s none of your business. It’s literally none—how much of your salary do you spend on uh, beer? On, on petrol? It—it’s none of your business.
Interviewer: I think it is the public’s business to know what—well, it’s being investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Committee, so it’s somebody’s business. You’re saying you need security, a legitimate point. How much of that money have you spent on security so far?
Nigel Farage: I’m sorry, why—well, I know I’m not going to answer that, deliberately, willfully.
Interviewer: Do you wish that you had not—
Nigel Farage: It is not your business. It is not your business. It is not your business at the BBC to put me in danger, therefore I will not answer that.
Interviewer: I would just like to clarify, do not make any mistake, we are not putting you in any danger at all.
Nigel Farage: If I give you—if I answer that question you are, so I won’t.
Interviewer: So, but you have already said that you haven’t spent it.
Nigel Farage: Fine. Leave it at that then.
Interviewer: Do you wish you declared it at the time?
Nigel Farage: No.
Interviewer: You know this is going to keep coming up again and again—
Nigel Farage: That’s it. And look, you can obsess about it, all right? That’s fine. I spent, goodness knows, scores of hours in Makerfield, out talking to people, out knocking on doors, meeting people of all political opinions, and only one person raised it with me. So, you know, if—if you want to go on about it for the next three years, you go on about it, that’s fine. I’m going to get on with my job.
Interviewer: I just wonder, you know, the people that you’re talking to this morning, our viewers, the man and woman in the pub tonight watching England play football, I just wonder what they would think about someone who has got five million pounds sitting in a bank account, and whether, how they can relate to that. I wonder how—
Nigel Farage: I wonder. I wonder how they’d relate to your salary, many of them in the pub.
Interviewer: My salary is on the public record.
Nigel Farage: Many of them, many of them, many of them, uh, watching this program right now.
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