UK

Nigel Farage declares £60,000 in GB News earnings in latest MPs’ register

The latest update of the interests register shows new earnings for a number of MPs, including media appearances and local government work.

Leader Nigel Farage during a Reform UK press conference
Leader Nigel Farage during a Reform UK press conference (Lucy North/PA)

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has declared more than £60,000 in earnings from GB News in the latest register of MPs’ interests.

The MP for Clacton also declared more than £12,000 earned from Cameo in this latest update, a service that people can use to request personalised videos.

The latest update of the interests register shows new earnings for a number of MPs, including media appearances and local government work.

Nigel Farage during the launch event for GB News
Nigel Farage during the launch event for GB News (Yui Mok/PA)

Mr Farage declared £60,388.80 from the TV channel in the latest updates to the register which was published on Wednesday afternoon. The latest declaration was for an estimated 20 hours’ work, and the payment was received on September 30.

This comes after £81,607 that was declared in August and published in the register in September. That payment, Mr Farage said in the register, included “a back payment for work over several months”, and was received in July before being declared the following month.

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The register states in relation to Mr Farage’s GB News payments that “all payments made to Thorn in the Side Ltd”.

The register also showed declared earnings for Mr Farage of £12,247.71 from Cameo for approximately 24 hours’ work. Mr Farage has also declared earnings from other social media across X, Meta platforms and Google in the October update, totalling almost £4,000.

Former home secretary Suella Braverman appears as a guest presenter on LBC
Former home secretary Suella Braverman appears as a guest presenter on LBC (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Conservative MP and former cabinet minister Suella Braverman declared £1,000 for one-off guest presenting with Global Radio Services, and also £1,500 for writing articles for The Telegraph.

Labour’s Emily Thornberry also received £1,000 from Global, which the declaration said was donated to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School.

Labour MP Barry Gardiner declared £1,000 for a television appearance with the Middlesex Broadcasting Corporation.

Other MPs also declared earnings for work in councils, writing royalties, and other jobs including the Royal Naval Reserve and academic work.

The basic annual salary for an MP is £91,346. MPs also receive expenses for covering costs related to running their office and employing staff.

In September, the new Commons Modernisation Committee set out its priorities, and suggested that outside jobs such as media appearances could be set to go under the microscope.

The committee said: “Members across the House will know that the events of recent years and the misconduct of individual members has eroded public trust and confidence in this institution.

“It is incumbent on all of us to embody the high standards that the public expect of us and we must all act to change and improve the reputation of this place.”

Its note said the committee “should consider what advantages, if any, outside paid engagements such as media appearances, journalism and speeches furnish to the public, versus the potential conflicts of interest and attention that arise from such paid endeavours”.