Farage shared stage with far-right Austrian leader who opposes Russian sanctions

For MPs, Friday is usually spent in the constituency speaking to local people. But Clacton MP Nigel Farage did not spend yesterday in Clacton because he had jetted off to Chicago for a third transatlantic trip since he was elected in July. 

Last night, he gave the keynote address at an anniversary dinner for the Heartland Institute – an American right-wing think tank that promotes climate change denial and wants to repeal Barack Obama’s accessible health care reforms.

One of Farage’s warm-up acts was Harald Vilimsky, a leading figure in Austria’s far-right Freedom Party. Vilimsky, who leads the party’s delegation in the European Parliament, has been accused as being  “Putin’s outstretched arm” and has called for a referendum in Austria on Russian sanctions.

In 2016, the Freedom Party signed a friendship treaty with Putin’s United Russia to ensure ideological and organisational co-operation. The party says that pact is now null and void, but allegations persist of collusion between the Freedom Party and Moscow to discredit Austria’s intelligence service.

The Freedom Party’s alleged Russian links have proved no barrier to the Heartland Institute’s involvement with Vilimsky. Nor did they stop Clacton MP Farage from favouring a Friday with the right-wing MEP over his constituents.

A platinum table ticket for tonight’s dinner with Farage comes with a $50,000 price tag. So the Reform leader can no doubt expect another bumper payday after he helped to raise funds for the Trump-aligned cause across the pond.

The next stop on the self-proclaimed man of the people’s world tour is Singapore, where Farage will be delivering an address to the Nomad Capitalist summit . The event is for the super-rich with special interests in offshore tax structuring and second citizenships. Hopefully Nigel will be back in Clacton at some point to deal with the concerns of his constituents.

“He does know, Nigel Farage, doesn’t he, that the sea Clacton is on is not the Black Sea, or the Singapore Straits or the Pacific?” said executive director of Good Law Project, Jo Maugham. “I am starting to wonder whether to set up a crowdfunder for an atlas.”

We worked with the Guardian on this story. Nigel Farage told the newspaper, “It’s a conference with many guests! I wonder if other MPs have had holidays this year? These little trips count as mine.”

A spokesman for Mr Farage also told the Guardian, “Nigel told the people of Clacton that he would spend some time in America if elected. They gave him a majority of 8,405.”