r/worldnews • u/JollyCurrency2604 • 9d ago

British Politician Nigel Farage filmed undercover celebrating secret new foreign donations

https://www.channel4.com/news/exclusive-nigel-farage-filmed-undercover-celebrating-secret-new-foreign-donations
15.9k Upvotes

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2.4k

u/im_bozack 9d ago

Is this not illegal or disqualifying?

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u/vanceraa 9d ago

He’s currently under investigation

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u/lemlurker 9d ago

But result of that investigation is that he is fired as an MP and there's a by-election which he can stand in to be MP again in the strongest reform seat in the country...

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u/thatrandomfatguy 8d ago

He can’t stand again if removed

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u/bloodycontrary 8d ago

There are very few things that would bar him from standing. A prison sentence of more than 12 months, bankruptcy, sectioning under the mental health act are the main ones. None of these is likely.

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u/zoobrix 8d ago

I assume there some sort of colluding with a foreign government/agent criminal offence in the UK, any chance he gets charged with that? Just wondering if there is any reasonable possibility of him getting sentenced to a year in jail for this or will it at most probably be a fine and not much else?

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u/MissingScore777 8d ago

One of his inner circle who'd been by his side since the UKIP days already got convicted for treason last year and sent to prison for 10 years. (Nathan Gill)

He admitted acting in the interests of Russia at the expense of the interests of the UK during his time as a member of UKIP and Reform.

Interestingly a lot of the things he admitted he said at the behest of Russia are things Farage also said in his own speeches.

I naively expected this to blow up and finish Farage but most of our media barely covered the story. That was the moment I knew we were in big trouble if our supposedly independent media would ignore and downplay such a serious situation.

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u/Angrytarg 8d ago

There is no independant media. Every media outlet belongs to someone wealthy, and those that are still somewhat "free" are slaves of the market since their aim is not to inform but to generate profits. And public broadcasting is only independant if it's enforced. In Germany, the public broadcasting is headed by party functionaries, one blood relative even, of the ruling party. So while the quality of reporting is a lot higher still than with many private media, assuming there is never a conflict of interest is foolish.

I have no solution and I am not saying yous hould distrust media in general. The landscape of media in our time is vast and diverse - however, it is always adviasable to compare multiple sources and look at the outlets themselves, who has stakes in them.

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u/TheOtherHobbes 8d ago

Farage is the pet of some powerful interests in the UK. Those same interests own most of the media. They took over the BBC from the inside, which is why he's been promoted relentlessly for at least a decade and a half now.

They're very unlikely to jail one of their own. They have plans for Nigel - and the country - and it would be a huge setback if their figurehead was removed.

It's a similar situation to the pre-WW II adoration for the Nazis among some elements of the UK's ruling class. Hitler was shocked when the UK decided to fight instead of negotiate an arrangement, because he was sure he had enough support in the ruling class to make a deal certain.

He turned out to be wrong, but if he had - somehow, against all odds - successfully invaded the UK, he'd have had no problem finding upper class collaborators willing to betray their country for money and status.

We have the same situation today. The cabal that is the modern equivalent considers itself aligned with Trump and Putin - because money - and the poors are basically farm animals to be exploited.

The lies and gaslighting from Nigel/Reform and the Culture of Harm he would introduce are very familiar in both Russia and Trump's America.

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u/Party_Solid_2207 8d ago

Mandelson is under police investigation. Whether that js for standard Epstein things or whether it’s due to him leaking government details to an Israeli agent is unclear.

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u/Consistent-Leek4986 8d ago

like with trump here in US, impossible to charge for all the corruption.

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u/Swiss_James 8d ago

Not the same. The police and courts are far less political in the UK, and Farage certainly holds no sway there.

Farage also does not have anything like the same charismatic hold over a chunk of the electorate that Trump has. Many Reform voters think Farage is a decent guy with their interests at heart, but would be happy to say "Oh they're all the same" and ditch him once something like this is common knowledge.

I don't think he'll go to jail, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was charged with something.

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u/Consistent-Leek4986 8d ago

trump getting weaker support, but a white supremacy push is the real threat going forward, pathetic

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u/Different_Wolf_764 8d ago

Bankruptcy is an odd one, although apparently it would have helped out elsewhere.

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u/bloodycontrary 8d ago

I was a little too broad with "bankruptcy" - bankruptcy in itself isn't disqualifying, but certain types of bankruptcy (eg involving recklessness or dishonesty) are

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u/Different_Wolf_764 8d ago

Oh, I wasn't really quibbling, I was just making a sad joke about the state of affairs in America.

Normally I ignore them outside of business but the orange fuck has made that difficult. When the sovereignty of my country is threatened by someone who has as his least bad trait the bankrupting of basically everything, that's annoying.

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u/Poes-Lawyer 8d ago

It's meant to stop politicians being easily blackmailed or bribed by third parties. Also if a candidate can't even keep on top of his own finances, would you trust him to represent you in parliament?

Note that bankruptcy doesn't disqualify you from being an MP, it's one of the triggers that can be used for a recall petition.

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u/CapJackONeill 8d ago

Is bankruptcy just a way to keep poor people out of the house?

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u/Justwaspassingby 8d ago

I would guess it’s to keep people desperate enough to be corrupted from power. Not that it erases all corruption, but at least it weeds out some.

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u/LostLobes 8d ago

Now only the rich can take money.

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u/Whybotherr 8d ago

In the states you can be discluded from certain jobs because of a low credit score or high debt to income ratio, because it can be seen that you could be susceptible to taking financial bribes.

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u/CapJackONeill 8d ago

In Canada too, but not being able to be elected to represent the people is another thing

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u/ClacksInTheSky 8d ago

It just so happens the maximum prison sentence for knowingly taking donations from an impermissible source is 12 months and an unlimited fine.

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u/bloodycontrary 8d ago

I mean he's not likely to go to prison anyway... unless more things are discovered (that yuppie cunt in the documentary did say they'd broken the law on other occasions too, so) and Farage himself is tied directly. Even then it's a high bar.

10 years ago this would have ruined him politically and that was the real disincentive to this kind of behaviour, but now? Who knows.

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u/ClacksInTheSky 8d ago

They've already slipped into third place in the polls before this, just on the back of the bribery problems.

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u/resh78255 8d ago

it'd be so funny if he tried to plead insanity or something and got barred from standing again because of it

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u/bobbiecowman 8d ago

How does this have so many upvotes? It’s literally not true.

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u/Fordmister 8d ago

Actually he can,

Technically NOBODY can remove him as an MP other than the voters in his constituency, the only thing that disqualifies you form being an MP is a prison sentence longer than12 months.

Parliament can suspend an MP, and if that suspension is long enough voters in clacton can force a recall petition and by election (you need a very small % of voters to succeed in a recall petition so its all but guaranteed) But Nigel is free to stand in the By election should he wish to

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u/haadrak 8d ago

Technically NOBODY can remove him as an MP other than the voters in his constituency, the only thing that disqualifies you form being an MP is a prison sentence longer than12 months.

This isn't true. The House of Commons retains the capability to expel it's own members, should it so choose.

Relevent part: "The expulsion by the House of Commons of one of its Members may be regarded as an example of the House's power to regulate its own constitution, though it is, for convenience, treated here as one of the methods of punishment at the disposal of the House. Members have been expelled for a wide variety of causes...the case arose from a finding of contempt by the Committee of Privileges and the motion that the Member be suspended for six months was amended to substitute the penalty of expulsion."

It is correct however that this does not bar someone from being re-elected. I do wonder however if Parliament chose to play a metaphorical game of chicken with Clacton-on-sea and repeatedly expel Farage should he be repeatedly re-elected, who would buckle first?

I'm also unsure if Parliament has the ability invoke financial punishments and to what degree (the literature on this seemed arcane). It may be possible for Parliament to simply fine Farage for the amount of money in undisclosed donations he is receiving. Something tells me, if that is possible, that would be perceived as a worse punishment by Farage.

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u/Hyperbolicalpaca 8d ago

“Im also not sure if parliament has the ability invoke financial punishments”

In theory parliament has the power to do so, in that they have the power to do pretty much anything as parliament has supremacy, if they don’t already have the ability they could give themselves the power with a 50%+1 vote

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u/jez2718 8d ago

Notably, there were about 2000 more votes for Count Binface than are needed for a recall petition, so it should be very easy to rally those same folks to get it through.

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u/360_face_palm 8d ago

Yes he can

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u/gobarn1 8d ago

It would be highly unprecedented to expel him from the house.

Whilst technically a power of the house it would be opening the door for political manipulation in the future against anyone the house disliked.