Billy KenberPolitics investigation correspondent and
Becky MortonPolitical reporter
PA Media
Nigel Farage has insisted he has no “financial stake” in a house bought by his partner in his Clacton constituency.
The Reform UK leader said the money used to purchase the property was “legally hers”, adding: “She bought the house, the deeds are in her name, council tax is in her name.”
It comes after a BBC investigation raised questions over how Farage’s partner, Laure Ferrari, could afford to buy the £885,000 home in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, without a mortgage.
Farage has denied avoiding more than £44,000 in additional stamp duty on the purchase of the house by putting it in his partner’s name, saying that she bought it with her own funds.
Stamp duty is a tax paid when buying a property over a certain price in England and Northern Ireland.
There is a higher rate if the buyer already own another property and this would have been due if Farage had purchased the Clacton house himself.
Farage has suggested Ms Ferrari was able to afford the four-bedroom home because she comes from a wealthy French family.
However, the BBC has examined French property and company records and has been unable to find evidence that Ms Ferrari’s parents have the means to fund their daughter’s purchase of the home.
Ms Ferrari herself is the director of a consultancy, now called Baxter Laois Limited, which is the registered owner of Farage’s gin brand.
However, the company’s latest accounts show limited activity, with more than £10,000 owed to creditors and just £1,000 in assets.
If the Reform leader was the source of funds used for the home, which he has denied, it would be legal for his partner to use them to buy the property in her name and pay the lower rate of stamp duty.
But it would open Farage to charges of hypocrisy and seeking to avoid tax, particularly after he criticised former Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner last week for avoiding stamp duty.
Asked if he earned any of the money used by his partner to buy the house, Farage told reporters on Friday: “No. No, no, no, listen, can I be clear about this. The money was legally hers, the estate agents and everyone did the know your customer rule checks.”
He added: “I don’t have any financial stake in it whatsoever, other than she lets me stay there but then given that I’m her partner that’s not really that unusual.”
Pressed over whether he had given his partner funds at any point, the Clacton MP said: “I have given every answer to this I want to give.
“I’ve even been this week to a King’s Counsel tax expert and paid a lot of money to make sure that everything we’ve done is legal and right.”
Asked why he had sought expert tax advice, Farage said he was “really concerned” that some media reports were “beginning to stray into libel territory”.
“So I have now done everything I can at every level to prove that everything that’s been done is legal, correct and right,” he added.
“It’s been a very expensive week.”
Following his election as the MP for Clacton last year, Farage claimed in a series of interviews that he had bought a house in his constituency.
In response to questions last November about how many times he had been to Clacton, Farage said he had “just exchanged contracts on a house that I’ll be living in there”.
It later emerged that the £885,000 home had been bought by his partner Ms Ferrari, who is listed on Land Registry documents as the sole owner. It was bought without borrowing any money for a mortgage.
Labour has accused Farage of “misleading the public”, with party chairwoman Anna Turley previously saying he must “urgently come clean” over whether he financially contributed towards the purchase of the house.
Farage’s solicitors said they had received written advice from a leading King’s Counsel tax expert which concluded there was no underpayment of stamp duty and that “there is no basis to suggest there has been any improper avoidance or evasion of tax in respect of the purchase”.