We already saw Nigel Farage earning very low grades in terms of doing his actual job as an elected MP. In his first year he turned up to Parliament and spoke only a fraction of the number of times that other party leaders did – less than once a week. He also voted fewer times than his peers, despite his claims to have strong opinions on a vast array of topics and delight in ranting about whatever comes to his mind to any media channel that will have him.
We can feel especially sorry for the people who live in his constituency, Clacton. He has managed to mention his constituency, Clacton, a mere four times in his first year.
As a comparison, his deputy, Richard Tice, has spoken more than 4x as often, 211 times, and mentioned his consistency at least 25 times.
Why? Well, Farage is a busy man. He has at least 9 “second” jobs, most of which enrich his huge personal wealth far more than merely doing the job he was elected to do would do. Over the same period he’s received almost £1 million from his other jobs.
DeSmog shares some quotes that give us a further sense of his greedy and unpatriotic alternative activities:
“Over the last year, Farage has put his speaking tours of the U.S., his GB News show and various side hustles as a landlord, shilling for a climate science denial think tank and flogging nappies and tax-free gold, all ahead of being the MP for Clacton,” said Jolyon Maugham, Good Law Project executive director.
“It’s not so much Britain First as Farage First.”
A number of Clacton voters have noticed Farage’s absence. Speaking to The Mirror, local residents accused the Reform leader of “doing nothing” aside from “looking for photo opportunities”.
As they note, we can’t really be surprised at Farage’s irresponsible laziness given his previous political record:
Farage has a long history of failing to perform parliamentary duties. While serving as a Member of European Parliament (MEP), he was a member of its influential fisheries committee, yet over three years turned up to only one of 42 meetings.