Farage TikTok mocking Welsh Government sparks fresh questions over undeclared support

Emily Price

A TikTok video posted by Nigel Farage mocking the former Labour-led Welsh Government has prompted fresh questions over his claim that he was not required to declare financial support from a convicted fraudster to Parliament.

The video was one of 67 analysed by Channel 4 News as part of a probe into the nature of the content published on Mr Farage’s TikTok account in the year leading up to his election as the MP for Clacton.

It was posted in October 2023 at a time when the Welsh Labour Government announced emergency budget revisions that included a £40 million reduction to the education budget, while the climate change portfolio saw a revenue increase of £86.2 million, largely directed into Transport to Wales.

The video featured Mr Farage stood against a Welsh flag backdrop and showed an image of former First Minister Mark Drakeford.

Speaking to TikTok users, Farage said: “Does education matter?

“Well, not to the Labour government in Wales. Oh God, no.

“They’re going to take tens of millions away from educating young people and put it into climate change measures.

“All the while, the Chinese are building 80 great massive monster coal fired power stations every year.

“It makes no difference. Climate change measures take money from the poor, give it to the rich, make no difference at all and the education of young people in Wales can suffer.

“Labour in Wales are useless and if that’s what we’ve got with a Keir Starmer government nationally, boy we’re in for a real treat.”

Staff

The Sunday Times reported that convicted criminal and long-term Farage ally George Cottrell directly funded three staff members to transform the Reform leader’s social media presence in the year leading up to the July 2024 general election.

Under House of Commons rules, newly elected MPs must register any gifts or benefits worth more than £300 that they received in the 12 months prior to their election.

Reform UK has argued that Mr Farage didn’t need to tell parliament about Mr Cottrell’s donation because the social media content wasn’t political, but related to his job as a GB News presenter and his time as a contestant on, ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’

The Channel 4 News investigation found that around a third of the videos posted to Mr Farage’s TikTok account during the period when Mr Cottrell is believed to have been funding social media staff were political in nature.

Nation.Cymru asked Reform UK if the social media staff that produced the the video of Mr Farage attacking Welsh Labour were funded by Mr Cottrell.

We did not receive a response.

A Welsh Labour source said: “Nigel Farage thinks he can take the public for fools.

“In a time when he says he wasn’t active in politics, here he is going after the Welsh Labour Government.

“Farage cannot run away from the scandals surrounding him.”

Resignation

It comes following Mr Farage’s announcement that he would resign as MP for Clacton to force a by-election, which he will contest, amid growing scrutiny of a separate £5 million gift he received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

The party leader says it will be a “people versus the establishment” contest, although so far his foremost opponent is likely to be alien warrior Count Binface – a parody candidate dressed in a bin costume.

The main Westminster parties have boycotted the by-election branding it a “desperate political stunt”.

Mr Farage is currently the subject of an investigation by Parliamentary Standards Commissioner over whether his failure to declare the £5 million gift breached Commons rules.

That investigation was suspended on his resignation, but is likely to resume if he wins the Clacton by-election.

If he is found to have broken the rules and a suspension of more than 10 days is imposed, it could trigger a recall petition and the prospect of Mr Farage losing his seat, forcing a second by-election which Westminister’s main parties say they will stand candidates in.

The Times has also reported that Scotland Yard have been looking into potential offences relating to the “evasion of restrictions on donations” after a six-figures sum was given to Reform UK by Mr Cottrell’s mother, Fiona Cottrell.

Mr Farage maintains he has done nothing wrong.