Nigel Farage fined half his salary to recover misspent funds

Ukip’s former leader and MEP Nigel Farage is being fined half of his monthly salary from the European Parliament after auditors concluded that European funds had been misused:

The former Ukip leader … will lose €40,000 (£35,500) in total, the Guardian has learned, after European parliament auditors concluded he had misspent that amount of EU funds.

Financial controllers have been investigating the role of Christopher Adams, who was hired by Farage to work in the European parliament as his assistant.

Auditors suspended Adams’ contract last year, because they were not convinced he was working for Farage on European parliamentary matters. Although paid as Farage’s assistant, Adams was also the national nominating officer for Ukip, where he was described as one of the party’s “key people”.

Ukip has also seen funding of a friendly think tank suspended after other allegations of financial rule-breaking. In yet further financial trouble, Ukip and sister parties in the European Parliament have had to repay funds in a different scandal over misuse of money. Meanwhile in the UK, Nigel Farage was fined for breaking UK election finance rules in 2014 and in 2012 Ukip MEPs had to repay £37,000 after breaking other expenses rules.