Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform UK party, has racked up over £151,000 in donor-funded flights to support former US President Donald Trump since entering Parliament. Most recently, Farage attended an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida celebrating US military veterans, just months before Trump’s controversial comments dismissing the sacrifices of British troops who served in Afghanistan.
Farage’s frequent transatlantic trips to support Trump or organisations linked to him have drawn criticism from political opponents. A Green Party spokesperson described Farage as “a fraud” who “pretends to be a patriot, while jetting off to hang out with the American far right when Trump dishonours all the British troops that died fighting for America.”
It has also emerged that Farage was acting as an advisor to Iranian-born businessman Hossein Ghandehari during his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week.
The Reform UK leader, who presents himself as a champion of “ordinary people,” spent much of his first year as an MP crisscrossing the Atlantic, often with wealthy backers picking up the tab. In November 2025, Nigeria-born Lebanese billionaire Basim Haidar paid £54,921 for flights for Farage and two aides to attend a veterans’ event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Last February, GB News covered almost £8,000 for Farage to attend the pro-Trump CPAC conference in Washington, DC. Trump-linked trips dominate Farage’s entries on the Commons Register of Interests, with crypto investor and Reform mega-donor Christopher Harborne funding £27,616 in travel and accommodation for Trump’s inauguration in 2025, after paying £32,836 the previous summer for Farage to fly to the US and campaign for Trump’s re-election.
Controversy has surrounded some of these flights, with experts suggesting they could be seen as donations to the Trump campaign. Other donor-funded trips include a flight costing £15,276 to meet tech boss Elon Musk, who has subsequently called Farage “weak,” and a £3,353 trip to the New York Young Republicans Club, a group later disbanded after Politico documented racist WhatsApp messages from its members.
