Nigel Farage has admitted missing 77 out of the last 77 votes in Parliament, blaming his campaigning schedule for the absence. The Reform UK leader has not registered a single vote in almost 11 weeks, including major motions on the King’s Speech and referring Keir Starmer to the Privileges Committee.
His last vote was on March 18, a ‘no’ on a motion to increase higher education fee limits. Since then, he has failed to vote throughout April and May. When questioned by Metro, Farage said he was running a national campaign for the May 7 elections. When it was pointed out that other leaders, such as Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch, were able to vote in the days before the elections, he added: ‘Other party leaders don’t travel the country.’
Since March 18, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has voted six times, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch voted nine times. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey voted 34 times in the same period and still gained 155 extra councillors in the English local elections.
Farage has also not spoken in Parliament for nearly ten weeks, since Prime Minister’s Questions on March 25. He is currently focused on the crucial Makerfield by-election on June 18, which is expected to be a straight fight between Reform candidate Robert Kenyon and Labour’s Andy Burnham.
Farage drew a reaction from Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, after posting an AI image of small boat migrants holding ‘Vote Andy for us’ posters on Saturday. Burnham responded: ‘Are you getting desperate, lad? Maybe keep your crypto millions for something else.’ This referenced a £5 million ‘gift’ given to Farage by crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in January 2024, now under investigation by Parliament’s standards watchdog.
Farage has described the donation as payment for security and a reward for his Brexit campaigning, claiming there is ‘no obligation’ to declare it. It is unclear if he plans to vote before the by-election; if not, he will have gone three months without voting.
In 2016, the Daily Record reported that Farage had the worst voting record of any active MEP in the European Parliament between July 2014 and May 2016, attending only 40.7% of roll-call votes, ranking 745th out of 746 MEPs.
