The Parliamentary Standards Committee is investigating the gift of five million pounds to Nigel Farage, before he became an MP.
‘We want to see the card,’ said a pale functionary. ‘In our view, the nature of the card, and the sentiments expressed in it, are critical to determining if the gift was personal or tantamount to a political donation.
‘For example, if the card says ‘Happy Birthday Nige! I’ve transferred some birthday money into your Swiss account – go wild!’, then that sounds more personal. But if the card says ‘Remittance, for services to be rendered in the future, five million quid, please acknowledge safe receipt and provide a VAT invoice’, then it sounds a bit more businessy.
If the card has a cake, or a balloon, or bottles of fizz on it, then again, it seems more of a personal thing. If the card has a picture of an England flag, or Clacton, or small boats in the channel, then one would construe that as being more political.
It’s entirely possible that Nigel didn’t keep the card. If you receive that sort of money on a regular basis, I imagine that the whole thing becomes a bit mundane.
Image credit: Wix AI (edited)
