Politics

Farage used £33k of donor cash to campaign for Trump in US

Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against the UK’s Labour Party, accusing it of “blatant foreign interference” in the US election in aid of the Harris-Walz campaign.

But he might want to check his own glass house before he starts throwing stones.

According to Mirror reports, Nigel Farage used nearly £33,000 of donor cash to help support Donald Trump in the US election – months before he submitted his complaint about the Labour Party.

The Reform UK leader and ‘proud patriot’ missed the King’s Speech to travel to Wisconsin in July shortly after he was elected as an MP to attend the Republican National Convention (RNC).

He publicly admitted his trip was intended “to support my friend Donald Trump at the RNC”, adding “we all have a duty to support and defend democracy.”

Farage’s trip was paid for by Christopher Harborne, a British tech investor based in Thailand.

He declared on his register of members interests that the flights and accommodation for the trip came to £32,836.

Other right-leaning British political figures to attend the event included former prime minister Liz Truss, who has publically endorsed Trump.

In a Telegraph article, cited as evidence in the Trump campaign’s complaint, constitutional law expert Lawrence Otter is reported as saying any campaign activist who spends more than $1,000 supporting them could end up with a “substantial” fine by the FEC

“The cost of getting here by air, if it is less than $1,000 it would be okay, but anything more than that it becomes very problematic in my opinion,” he said.

Related: Britain’s last distant-water trawler is stuck in Hull for the most Brexit reason ever

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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