With Ukip riding as high as 20 per cent in the polls, and on course to finish first or second in next month’s European elections, Nigel Farage is finally coming under the kind of scrutiny he has avoided for so long. Today’s Times reveals that he is potentially facing a European investigation over the £15,500 he receives annually in MEP allowances to fund the Bognor Regis property where he lives rent-free. A former office manager told the paper that upkeep of the converted grain store amounts to no more than £3,000 a year, leaving around £12,000 apparently unaccounted for.
A complaint has been filed to the EU anti-fraud office OLAF by a former Ukip official who wishes to remain anonymous due to “physical threats” allegedly made by other party officials against members who raised questions about Ukip finances. One of the party’s former MEPs, Mike Nattrass, remarks: “You shove it down your trousers if you want to. The EU will never ask them to justify it. That’s the trouble with it. It goes into your bank account whether you want it or not.”
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