Nigel Farage has spent his first year in Parliament giving speeches to radical right-wing groups close to President Donald Trump, making multiple trips to the U.S. to push his anti-climate agenda.
As reported by DeSmog and The Mirror this week, the Reform UK leader has addressed the House of Commons on only 46 occasions over the past year, mentioning his coastal Clacton constituency just four times.
Today, DeSmog’s monitoring can reveal that Farage has made a host of speeches to radical right-wing groups – many of them closely connected to U.S. President Donald Trump.
In his first year since being elected to Parliament, the Clacton MP has made at least nine trips to the United States. He has told audiences that Trump is “producing a wave” across the Atlantic that is “going to help us change politics in the UK” and deliver him into Downing Street.
Farage has delivered speeches to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the Heartland Institute, the Arizona Liberty Network, and the New York Young Republicans Club, all of which have attacked climate policies.
A spokesman for Nigel Farage told DeSmog: “The net zero scam is collapsing before our eyes. Cry more.”
This week a Met Office report warned that record-breaking extreme weather “is now the norm” in the UK due to climate change, with potential impacts on infrastructure and public health “of profound concern”.
Farage has vowed to emulate Trump’s policies, claiming Reform will “Make Britain Great Again”. However, his support for Trump is out of step with the British public. New research produced by Persuasion UK shows that Farage’s relationship with Trump could significantly hinder his chances at the next election.
The Reform leader has also been heavily occupied with non-parliamentary work. The overwhelming majority – 91 percent – of Farage’s income in his first year in the Commons came from outside earnings. According to his register of interests, Farage received over £1 million during the year – £93,904 from the taxpayer, and £981,173 from his side gigs, including expenses.
The largest single source (£394,900) was his work as a TV presenter for GB News, the nationalist-populist broadcaster which frequently platforms attacks on climate policies. GB News is co-owned by Paul Marshall, whose hedge fund had £1.8 billion invested in fossil fuels as of June 2023.
“Over the last year, Farage has put his speaking tours of the U.S., his GB News show and various side hustles 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.”
Donald Trump campaign events
Nigel Farage has travelled to the U.S. for events in support of Donald Trump on at least four occasions since being elected to Parliament.
Since his return to office in January, President Trump has slashed life-saving government programmes, cut taxes for top earners, imposed tariffs on most of the world, arrested people for legal political activism, and deported innocent people to a prison in El Salvador as part of a national crackdown on immigrants.
He has also cracked down on climate action, halting funds for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN’s climate body, and the UN’s Green Climate Fund, slashing the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which forecasts hurricanes, blocking renewable energy projects, and opening land to new fossil fuel extraction.
As DeSmog has reported, two-thirds of Farage’s constituents in Clacton say they are concerned about climate change. YouGov finds that 70 percent of Brits “dislike” Trump, while 57 percent think he has been a “terrible” president.
Farage’s trips have included flying to Milwaukee days after July’s UK general election to attend the Republican National Convention. Farage received £32,836 from Reform donor Christopher Harborne to cover flights and accommodation for himself and one member of staff.
The Reform leader was back in the U.S. in November to attend a Trump rally in the key state of Pennsylvania, where he was photographed wearing a Reform-blue ‘Make America Great Again’ baseball cap. He also attended Trump’s post-election victory party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida – the site of a meeting in December with former Trump official and major donor Elon Musk.
Farage was back in the U.S. for Trump’s inauguration in January, when Harborne once again provided £27,616 to cover flights and accommodation to Washington DC.
In addition to these events, Farage has made several trips to the U.S. to speak to radical, pro-Trump groups – all of which have a record of attacking climate policies.
Heartland Institute
Farage has spoken at three Heartland Institute events in his first year in Parliament: a fundraising dinner in Chicago in September, the launch of its UK-EU wing in London in December, and an event on energy policy in Westminster last month.
Heartland has described itself as “the world’s most prominent think tank supporting scepticism about man-made climate change”. The group received at least $676,000 between 1998 and 2007 from U.S. oil major ExxonMobil. It has also received tens of thousands from foundations linked to the Koch Industries oil dynasty.
The group previously told DeSmog it is “proud to be supported by private citizens who believe in intellectual freedom.”
Heartland was one of the groups involved in drafting Project 2025, the radical blueprint for Trump’s second term, which proposed reversing climate policies, slashing restrictions on fossil fuel extraction, scrapping state investment in renewable energy, and gutting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Earlier this month, President Trump hired Roy Spencer, a policy advisor at the Heartland Institute and a former fellow at the Heritage Foundation – the key group behind Project 2025 – as an advisor to the Department of Energy.
At the benefit in Chicago, Farage called for more fossil fuel extraction and the victory of Trump in November’s presidential election, saying: “Let’s get Trump back; let’s drill baby drill”.
He also advocated what he called “a bit of reverse colonialism”.
“Maybe it’s time that Heartland came and set up in Britain and Europe and brought some of the wisdom that you’ve brought to the American debate,” he said – adding: “I’d love to see Heartland on the other side of the pond.”
Farage soon got his wish. In December, Heartland announced it was setting up a UK-EU branch. The Reform leader was the “special guest of honour” at the group’s launch event in London, which also featured former Conservative prime minister Liz Truss.
Cementing his Heartland links, Farage headlined an invite-only event in June this year entitled “Net Zero: The New Brexit?” held at 55 Tufton Street, the home of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK’s main climate denial group. Heartland’s UK-EU director Lois Perry, who has previously said she does not believe climate change is caused by humans, told DeSmog the event was a “stimulating discussion”.
To date no transcript or recording of the event has been made publicly available.
Arizona Liberty Network
Farage received £25,303 from Arizona Liberty Network, a conservative state coalition, for a speech at the Keep Arizona Free Summit in August 2024, according to his register of interests.
The group’s partners include several of those involved in Project 2025, including the American First Policy Institute and Heritage Action for America, the campaign arm of the Heritage Foundation.
In his keynote speech at the Keep Arizona Free Summit, Farage encouraged the audience to campaign in the upcoming presidential election, calling the attendees a “grassroots army”.
The Arizona Liberty Network’s website features leaflets opposing climate policies, including one entitled ‘Don’t Bet on Net Zero: Why Eliminating Fossil Fuels Would Be Catastrophic!’. It argues that “Climate Change is Real, Man-Made Climate Catastrophe is Not”. Its other leaflets oppose EPA efforts to improve air quality, and schemes to reduce road traffic and vehicle pollution.
The other sponsor of the August summit, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, published an article on its website last month urging the U.S. Senate to “listen to Trump” and “Kill the Green New Scam” in his so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” – Trump’s flagship domestic legislation, which has since been passed into law.
New York Young Republicans Club
In December, at the New York Republicans Club’s black-tie gala, Farage spoke alongside Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon.
The Reform leader told the audience he was “honoured” to be the only Brit who joined Trump at Mar-a-Lago on election day. He said of Trump: “This man is without doubt the bravest man I’ve ever met, the noblest man I’ve ever met, the most principled man I’ve ever met.”
The New York Young Republicans Club states that it believes in “cutting the administrative state and reducing the regulatory burden on new and small businesses in America”, as well as “eliminating the role the government has played in destroying American families”.
Farage went on to claim that Brexit had helped Trump to win the presidency in 2016, and that “now the favour has been returned”.
“I think Trump winning is going to help us change our politics in the United Kingdom,” he said. “And whether you believe it or not, I am already the odds-on, bookmakers’ favourite to be the next British prime minister.”
He also said he was “so excited” for Elon Musk to “take the knife to the establishment”. Prior to departing the Trump administration in May, Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sacked scores of civil servants and slashed life-saving programmes.
The energy section of the New York Young Republicans Club website celebrates America’s “innovations in hydraulic fracturing and the shale revolution” – referring to the expansion of fracking for gas in the U.S. over the last decade.
It adds that “the extreme and radical anti-human and anti-civilization environmental lobby has all but squandered” the gains of this increased fossil fuel production.
Conservative Political Action Conference
In February, the Reform leader flew to Washington DC to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual right-wing gathering that has increasingly become the meeting place of the pro-Trump ‘MAGA’ movement.
Farage’s fellow speakers included Liz Truss, Argentinian President Javier Milei, Steve Bannon, and Donald Trump himself.
The conference covered Farage’s accommodation, while GB News paid £7,924 for his flights, as he was supposedly there as a journalist.
However, Farage also gave a speech during which he stated that “We in turn will make Britain great again”.
He went on to praise “the hero of free speech, Elon Musk” and his “amazing DOGE project”.
A recent study by the Lancet medical journal estimates that Musk’s cuts to the U.S. aid budget – which provided HIV medication and food aid to the developing world – could lead to 14 million deaths by 2030.
Alliance for Responsible Citizenship
In February, Farage also spoke at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London, where he was interviewed by the group’s co-founder, Canadian psychologist and activist Jordan Peterson.
As DeSmog has reported, ARC is a global conservative group with ties to far-right politicians and some of the world’s most prominent climate science deniers. The organisation is funded by hedge fund millionaire Paul Marshall, who co-owns GB News, Farage’s highest-paying employer.
At the conference, Farage said: “I’m not a scientist. I can’t tell you whether CO2 is leading to warming or not, but there are so many other massive factors.” He also claimed it was “absolutely nuts” that CO2 is considered to be a pollutant.
Last month was the UK’s hottest June on record, during a Europe-wide heatwave powered by human-made climate change.
Scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s foremost climate science body, have said: “it is unequivocal and indisputable that humans are warming the planet”.
The IPCC has also stated that carbon dioxide pollution “is responsible for most of global warming” since the late 19th century, which has increased the “severity and frequency of weather and climate extremes, like heat waves, heavy rains, and drought” – all of which “will put a disproportionate burden on low-income households and thus increase poverty levels.”
As DeSmog revealed, this year’s ARC event in London – where Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also spoke – was attended by multiple oil and gas executives.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a fracking executive, was one of the speakers. He used the event to call for more fossil fuel extraction, and claimed that the global ambition of achieving net zero by 2050 was “a sinister goal” that would “impoverish” people.
Prosperity Institute (formerly Legatum Institute)
Earlier this month, Farage spoke at an event in London hosted by the Prosperity Institute, the rebranded Legatum Institute, a pro-Brexit think tank.
Legatum is owned by the Dubai-based investment firm Legatum Group, which co-owns GB News alongside Paul Marshall. Legatum also shares directors with ARC, whose CEO and co-founder Philippa Stroud, a Conservative peer, is the former CEO of the Legatum Institute.
In May, after Reform’s local election gains, Prosperity published an article on its website entitled “Farage has the power to defund Net Zero”.
According to the Spectator Australia, at the London event earlier this month, Farage said he would need groups like the Prosperity Institute to bring “fresh young talent into current affairs” and provide “policy solutions we can give to the electorate next time round”.
He said “the great revolution that took place from 1979” – a reference to the election of Margaret Thatcher – was based on the “hard work and good thinking” of neo-liberal economists like Keith Joseph and Milton Friedman.
“That in many ways is your role today”, he told the Prosperity Institute audience – urging the group to produce “the ammunition” to “those of us on the front lines”.
Other Income
Farage spoke at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas in May, but has not yet registered a fee or expenses for the event. Reform now accepts donations via Bitcoin.
He also received £280,500 as a “brand ambassador” for Direct Bullion, a company which sells gold bars and coins.
Farage pocketed £40,075 for a speech given to tax advice company Nomad Capitalist LLC in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in September. Nomad’s website says “when millionaires, digital celebrities, and successful founders seek to lower their taxes […] they turn to Nomad Capitalist”, adding: “We specialize in legally and ethically reducing your tax rate.”
Farage also received £134,642 for video messages on the website Cameo.
