Nigel Farage failed to declare 17 payments on time, UK inquiry finds

LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Nigel Farage, head of Britain's populist Reform UK party, inadvertently committed 17 breaches of rules on declaring financial interests including payments from Google and Elon Musk's X Corp, a parliamentary official said.

The payments totalled about 380,000 pounds ($511,000), most of them made in 2025, with several from Britain's right-leaning broadcaster GB News, according to a report published on Wednesday.

Parliament's Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg concluded the failures were unintentional and caused by staffing and other administrative issues. He said the breaches related to Farage's failure to declare the payments within 28 days.

Farage said he took full responsibility for the lapses and the late declarations fell short of what was expected from public figures.

"This was an administrative error on behalf of me and my team, for which I can only reiterate our sincere apologies," he wrote in a letter to Greenberg dated November 12.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party, which lags Reform UK in opinion polls, said the government would tighten rules on lawmakers' second jobs to "make sure the public get the attention they expect and deserve from their elected representatives."

Farage said his circumstances differed from other lawmakers, citing his "very complicated and complex set of interests", including his work as a TV presenter and businessman.

($1 = 0.7439 pounds)