Nigel Farage jets off to US once more for second time since changing into Clacton MP

Newly elected MP Nigel Farage is jetting off to the US for the second time in barely a month where he is set to trouser a five figure sum, the Mirror can reveal.

Farage is the keynote speaker at Saturday’s “Keep Arizona Free Summit” in Scottdale, Arizona. The Clacton MP and Reform UK leader has already been paid an upfront deposit of nearly £12,000 for the speech .

He defended his decision saying it was booked “over a year ago” and that “I am not the sort of person who lets people down otherwise you get a terrible reputation”. But Jovan Owusu-Nepaul Labour ’s parliamentary candidate for Clacton in last month’s election, said: “It’s deeply frustrating and infuriating.

“We spoke to many people on the doorstep, and it was clear that people wanted an active and dedicated MP. Whilst he claims record amounts of money, people are still struggling with their cost-of-living during holiday time, proving his commitment has always been to himself rather than those who sent him to serve.”

It comes seven weeks after he was elected MP for the deprived Essex town and five weeks since he last flew to the US on an all-expenses paid trip to “support” Donald Trump. He is believed to be the UK’s best-paid MP, earning more than £50,000 a month on top of his £91,000 MPs salary from TV presenting, journalism, social media posts and recording personalised messages on the Cameo app.

Farage has already received a deposit of £11,783.55 – around $15,000 – from the AZ Liberty Network, co-organisers of Saturday’s conference. He said that his MP’s register of interests “will be updated with the final payment once the engagement has been fulfilled”.

He told us he has “absolutely no idea” how much the final fee will be and says his staff deal with the “admin”. But he defended the decision to jet off once again to the US on Friday morning: “I have previous commitments, contracts I have signed, which I will honour, because I am not the sort of person who lets people down otherwise you get a terrible reputation.

“They advertised the fact I was coming a long, long time ago. So, number one, I don’t breach things that I have previously agreed to. Number two, unlike everybody else I work seven days a week.”

He added: “I shall be in Clacton all day tomorrow, I shall be in Clacton all day Thursday, I will leave Clacton at midnight on Thursday and getting an early flight on Friday. I’m there a couple of days a week which is about as much as most MPs, I would have thought.

“At the moment I’m not living there but that takes a bit of time and that’s in the process, as we speak.” Asked if he had many other speaking engagements booked, he said: “Only a couple I think. Beyond the end of this year, there is nothing firm booked at all.”

Jo Maugham of the Good Law Project, whose researchers spotted the engagement, said: ”The voters of Clacton must be thrilled with the vast sums Farage is pocketing. What a blow he strikes for his screwed-over constituents by getting ever richer.”

Carla Lewis, 43, a support worker and mother of four who lives in Clacton, told us: “I have emailed him twice. Once it was about the problems within the area, social housing, lack of jobs, poor education, mental health, violent crime which often goes unreported.

“The second time was about how the election affected my family. I was threatened and my children had racism towards them. I have had no response. I have not seen him here once since he did his campaign.

“Clacton has never had the best reputation and I think he’s made us a laughing stock. It is so run down. The children can’t use the local park because of the drugs paraphernalia and broken glass.

“The locals have no pride in the area because the council don’t seem to have funds to give people a boost.”

Martin Suker, 31, a photographer and Labour party activist from Clacton, said: “I’m really disappointed to hear our newly elected MP is swanning off to the US involving himself in a political campaign there, rather than focussing on the people who voted for him in his last campaign here. Families continue to struggle with the cost of living increasing in the school holidays where work and childcare become harder to balance.

“Our town needs investment. Better jobs, better schools and more opportunities. I don’t think he will find any of that for us in Arizona.”

Mr Farage has already faced criticism when he jetted to the US last month, just a fortnight after his election. A Reform UK donor paid for Farage and “a staffer” to fly to Milwaukee in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

His explanation for the £32,836 freebie trip – which was “to support a friend who was almost killed and to represent Clacton on the world stage” – was widely ridiculed. Quizzed on why he was not devoting his time to Clacton, just 13 days after the general election, Farage said: “Well, I am allowed to come to America on a trip like this, particularly in these circumstances.

“I had planned to come originally to America and to be here for a few months. I made a decision, ‘no, I’m going to run for Clacton’. But given the circumstances it was right that I come. I’m just here for a couple of days, that’s it. I’ll be back at the weekend.”

Mr Farage has already emerged as probably the highest-earning MP of the new Parliament. His register of interests revealed that he earned £97,928.40 for 32 hours work a month as a presenter on GB News.

That’s more than the annual £91,346 a year salary paid to MPs. But he later issued a clarification that the sum ”includes VAT, and was for several months of work”.

Mr Farage told the BBC he gets a varying amount from GB News as a contractor and does not get a fixed monthly sum. He also declared £4,000 per month writing for The Daily Telegraph and a £16,597 payment for recording private video messages on the Cameo app.

Mr Farage earned £2,405 from an estimated 28 hours spent on the social media platforms owned by X and Meta. He also declared rent from two properties he owns in the South East.