Nigel Farage Paid £27,000 to Speak at Pro-Trump U.S. Think Tank

The Reform UK leader’s planned trip to Washington D.C. has prompted fresh consternation from campaigners.
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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage addresses the crowd at a local and mayoral election campaign launch rally in Birmingham, England, March 2025. Credit: Jack Taylor / Alamy

Nigel Farage is preparing to fly more than 3,000 miles from his UK constituency to address an anti-climate U.S. think tank with close ties to Donald Trump, DeSmog can report.

For an estimated 12 hours’ work on Saturday (7 March), the Reform UK leader will collect £27,856.88 from Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax lobby group based in Washington D.C. that has vowed “to work closely with President Trump and his team in advance of the 2026 mid-term elections”.

Farage’s latest transatlantic trip, published this week in the register of financial interests, comes days after Reform goes up against Labour and the Green Party at Thursday’s Gorton and Denton by-election, and two months ahead of UK local elections in May. 

He will be addressing a powerful U.S. group that in the 2024 election helped raise $163 million (£120 million) for Republican candidates. 

The Club for Growth’s president told Fox News in November that as the country looks toward the mid-terms, his group “is very aligned with President Trump, and we’re especially in these contested races, we’re going to help him win”.

Farage has repeatedly been criticised for spending minimal time in Clacton, Essex, where he was elected as an MP in July 2024. As DeSmog has reported, he mentioned his constituency in parliament just four times during his first year in the role.

The former Brexit Party leader has also come under fire for his lucrative trips abroad — often to give speeches to right-wing groups close to Trump. DeSmog revealed last month that since his election, Farage had made at least seven trips to cheerlead for Trump or attend events associated with the U.S. president, paid for by wealthy donors.

These trips are on top of Farage’s base MP salary of £93,000. He also receives £4,000 a-month for his column with the Daily Telegraph, and more than £300,000 a year as a presenter at GB News.

“Farage’s world tour goes on and on,” said Charlene Pink, campaigns manager at legal advocacy group the Good Law Project. “If you really want to represent Clacton, shouldn’t you actually spend some time there?”

Farage and Club for Growth did not respond to DeSmog’s request for comment.

Green Party MP Siân Berry said the trip “sheds a harsh light on where Nigel Farage’s priorities truly lie”.

“Not in Clacton with his constituents facing poverty and cuts, but in Washington DC with think tanks which support tax cuts for the mega rich, and will pay him the same as many people’s yearly salary for one speech.”
 
 Farage’s Clacton constituency is one of the most deprived in England, and has one of the highest risks of flooding, which has been made worse by climate change. 

Anti-Climate Views

Farage’s latest U.S. host, Club for Growth, focuses its lobbying on promoting free-market policies, lower taxes and deregulation. 

As Reform leader, Farage has promised to cut taxes and regulation for business if elected to government, including net zero policies.

Club for Growth has previously sought to undermine climate policies, and in 2018, called on Trump to exit the Paris Climate Agreement.
 
In a 2020 letter to the editor of the Washington Post, Scott Parkinson, vice president of government affairs for the Club for Growth, argued against attempts to make the Republicans more climate-friendly.   
 
The party should not succumb to a “Green New Deal Light”, Parkinson said, but instead “continue to work with principled conservatives who reject climate alarmism and fight for energy and environmental policies based on sound economic principles”.

Last year, Club for Growth released an advert — which aired on Fox News — targeting Republican Senator Kevin Cramerafter he stated he would oppose President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” because he supported Biden era green energy subsidies. 

According to analysis, Trump’s legislation would add an extra seven billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere between 2025 and 2030.

Additional reporting by Geoff Dembicki

Phoebe Cooke headshot - credit Laura King Photography
Phoebe is co-deputy editor at DeSmog UK, with a focus on European politics.
Adam Barnett - new white crop
Adam Barnett is DeSmog's UK News Reporter. He is a former Staff Writer at Left Foot Forward and BBC Local Democracy Reporter.

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