Farage slams EU expenses report

Nigel Farage said he is taking legal advice about allegations concerning his use of EU expenses.

The Ukip leader said that a story on the front page of “establishment newspaper” The Times was “politically motivated”.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “This whole story and even the line of questioning here is simply wrong.”

He said: “I’ve been here since 1999 and I’ve said since day one that I would use the money and the wherewithal provided by the European Union to fight against Britain’s membership of the European Union, but to do so within the rules of the parliament.

“And what we are seeing here from The Times - I mean not that I’m surprised because we have been expecting this - we are seeing yet another politically motivated attack from what is the establishment newspaper.”

Mr Farage said that the allegations reminded him “very much of what they (The Times) did to Lord Ashcroft 10 years ago, when they were supporting the Labour Party and they finished up settling out of court.

“We have seen article after article like this and The Times are wilfully misleading people into thinking that I have claimed office expenses from Brussels, I haven’t.”

According to The Times, Mr Farage receives £15,500 a year to run his constituency office in Bognor Regis, even though it claims it is provided to him rent-free by local Ukip supporters. A former office manager told the newspaper that the premises cost only about £3,000 yearly to run.

Mr Farage said: “We do not claim expenses for running offices or any other activity that takes place within our member state the United Kingdom, we get an allowance, a fixed rate allowance, and we can spend it as we see fit.”

The allowance, he said, is £3,580 a month “and that is given to every MEP and we can spend it how we want to”.

He added: “We don’t have to provide receipts for it, or anything like that. We are given recommendations to what it can legitimately be spent on, which includes the running of an office, paying for a mobile phone, buying equipment, hotel bills, restaurant bills, applying for subscriptions to websites by newspapers; there’s a list as long as your arm as to what this money legitimately can be spent on.”

Mr Farage insisted that the allegations were part of a smear campaign ahead of next month’s European elections, intended to derail the party.

“We have used the money to promote the cause of Britain leaving the European Union and we have done that unashamedly,” he said.

Mr Farage told Today that “all the way through, we have used lawyers and accountants to make sure that we dot the Is and we cross the Ts”.

However, he admitted that the party’s expenses had not been independently audited: “No it isn’t, it doesn’t need to be. There is no provision within the rules of parliament needing this to be audited.”

Asked if he would consider handing his expenses over for independent scrutiny, he said: “If that would solve the argument, of course I would.

“The real point, of course, here is that Ukip ultimately don’t want any of these allowances, we don’t want British MEPs costing the taxpayer all this money.”

Mr Farage also said that voters would not be surprised that Ukip was using EU money to promote Britain’s exit of the EU, saying that, since 1999, that had been made clear in every single European election manifesto.

Mr Farage added that it would come as no surprise to people “that the biggest advantage of all for us taking our seats in Brussels, is that it gives us the wherewithal to fight back against the European Union.

“And if you look at where Ukip is within the opinion polls today, I would suggest that that strategy is working.”

Mr Farage has built his political capital on painting Ukip as the anti-establishment party.

He added: “I am taking legal advice; I think this is completely and utterly outrageous.”

Businessman and pollster Lord Ashcroft, who has donated millions of pounds to the Conservatives since the 1980s, settled a libel action against The Times newspaper out of court in 1999.

He subsequently published his book Dirty Politics Dirty Times, outlining his personal account of the battle to clear his name over unsubstantiated claims during his time as Conservative Party Treasurer.