Another new job to stop Farage thinking about Clacton

Clacton’s absentee MP Nigel Farage is once again showing he has bigger fish to fry than the ones on sale in the Essex town’s chip shops. In a move that will no doubt delight his role model Donald Trump, Farage is devoting some of his time taking on the World Health Organization – meaning even less of it for poor old Clacton-on-Sea.

An update to parliament’s register of members’ financial interests has belatedly revealed the Reform leader’s role in a pressure group called Action for World Health, which was set up in May. His declaration was made November 12, well outside the 28-day rule for registering outside interests.

Not that that will bother Farage, who initially forgot to tell parliamentary authorities of his interest in Thorn in the Side, his money-spinning private firm – worth £1.3 million as at latest accounts.

Still, at least he has been clear in his ambitions for the new venture, declaring: “The World Health Organization needs to be stopped in its tracks. The Pandemic Treaty will enable them to lock us down over the heads of our elected national governments. Either we reform the organization, or we simply replace it. So please join our campaign to stop this nonsense.”

Farage’s attack on the WHO – which is an arm of the United Nations – will come as no surprise to followers of far right populists. The WHO is loathed by anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists and its pandemic agreement – intended to safeguard the world against rapidly spreading diseases like Covid – is seen as a way of imposing global rules on lockdowns, as well as the right to abortion.

Trump has again signalled that he will take the US out of the WHO when he returns to power, costing the organisation up to £650million per year but also damaging US big pharma by losing the WHO’s role in recommending which drugs are safe to be bought by other countries.

Kemi Badenoch, newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, may even be drawn into the debacle, with shadow ministers Greg Smith and Andre Rosindell among Farage’s parliamentary supporters. The venture is also unsurprisingly attracting the support of Farage’s lackey Richard Tice and hapless Brexiteer DUP MP Sammy Wilson, as well as three members of the Lords. They include hereditary peer Lord Strathcarron, and Baroness Foster of Oxton, who, like Farage, is on the payroll of GB News.

Farage’s new venture is active in the US as well as the UK and according to its website will be happy to accept donations from: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the Eurozone, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. No surprise there!