What Nigel Farage will say for money

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:08Today, neo-Nazis, rioters and birthday wishes for your nan. Nigel Farage's cameo side hustle.

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0:58Just a quick heads up before we start, today's episode contains strong and offensive language throughout.

1:06So you all know Cameo, right? It's that website where you can ask a celebrity to record a personalised message for you, for a fee. Often it's just a bit of a laugh. So say you want to get, I don't know, Jay from the Inbetweeners to record a hilarious message for your friend. You can do it on here.

1:27Henry Dyer:Whatever you do on your birthday, you just don't be a bus wanker. Happy birthday, Jacob. Or you could get one from Fiona from the most recent series of The Traitors. Hi, David. This is Fiona, the secret traitor. But it's not just celebrities that are on Cameo. There are some politicians on there too. And one in particular is so successful that he is listed on the site as a fan favourite with almost 2 ,000 five-star reviews. Hello Neil, Nigel Farage here and Oliver tells me you are 50 today. Very happy 21st birthday. Farage has recorded thousands of these things. And in fact, since he joined Cameo in 2021, he has churned out on average three every single day.

2:11Hello Johnny. Hello Tony. Hi Peter. Steve has been in touch. But a Guardian investigation has found that some of the messages that Farage has recorded go far beyond sending best wishes to your nan on her birthday.

2:26He knows what you can and can't say what's offensive. And then he's continuing to do it to make huge amounts of money. He offered support to a jailed rioter. He promoted a neo-Nazi group. He repeated far-right slogans and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. All raising serious questions for the man who fancies himself as the next British Prime Minister. From The Guardian, I'm Helen Pitt. Today in Focus. What Nigel Farage will say for money. For fuck's sake.

3:03Henry Dyer, welcome back to Today in Focus. Hi Helen. So you are an investigations correspondent at The Guardian. Tell me, how did this story start for you? So I had an email from a reader who said that they'd found this trend in some of Farage's videos and they wanted me to have a look at it too. So soon I found that we could look through the thousands of videos and the prompts and look at what Farage said. And a prompt is essentially a request, isn't it, that people make when they're paying for a Cameo video, and usually they're requesting something quite specific. Going through the videos on Cameo's website, we could find that in the source code on every page was information about how the video was commissioned, the day and time of the video's commissioning, as well as how much money Farage had charged for that video.

3:49And then we started looking through not just the information, those prompts, but also who is he taking money from based on those prompts? And when is he making these videos? When we looked at the data in mid-January, by that point, there were more than 4 ,300 videos that we could access. Blimey. Now, that's not all of the videos that Faraj has done on Cameo, we think, because when you make your request, you can tick a box to say, I'd like this video to be private. but the nature of Cameo is it's a platform where you want a message to send to someone and hopefully that video message they get is funny or entertaining in a way that they might want to share the link with others so there's not too much incentive to keep all of the videos private.

4:35And what do we know about Farage's time on Cameo? When did he first join it and how much time does he spend on the platform? So Farage joined the platform back in 2021. He wasn't an MP at the time, but since he became an MP, we know that he's made more than 1800 videos since July 2024. Wow. Okay. That is a lot when he's not only an MP, but also leading a political party. And we've got the really specific data about when it is that he's doing these videos. So we know that he took time out of his political duties. He did eight videos on the day of the election. I understand you like my smile and my sense of humour.

5:13Well, you know what? Given the state the world's in laughing is really really important just wanted to say a quick thank you for being the best donator to my amazing party cross our fingers let's hope july the 4th a real success he recorded two more at about 5am on election night he did four in the morning of the queen's funeral right you can see him in his black morning garb one produced for stag do and another in which he made a vulgar sexual reference to shenanigans in a cavern and quote deez nuts Now, I know you and Arthur are planning on getting up to shenanigans in that cabin. Mmm, these nuts.

5:49These nuts? What? It's a very online reference. It's referring to testicles. Okay, right. And he's mostly, it looks like he's filming these videos at home, and he doesn't have an aide helping. He's doing it himself. Okay. And he's doing about the equivalent of almost three videos a day since he started five years ago. But that's not including all of the other videos that might have been marked as private. And how did Faraj explain the amount of time that he was spending making these videos? So when we asked Faraj about this, he said, you know, I voted more times than Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer combined since the 2024 election.

6:28And he said that this was proof effectively that his cameo videos were not taking away from his parliamentary responsibilities.

6:46All right, so let's have a look at Nigel Farage's profile on Cameo. So there's all of these videos that he's made at the top. Some of them say birthday, some say other. Let's look at the prices. Okay, so he's saying the price is£69.92. And for that, he will deliver you a message within 24 hours. Well, you've got to pay extra, actually, in order to get the 24-hour delivery. Yeah, okay. But we also know he's kind of offering all of these reasons why you might get a video. A happy birthday, a pep talk, a roast. A roast. And there's quite a few people who commissioned a Valentine's Day message from Nigel Farage.

7:20What could be more romantic? Exactly. So we've seen the prices that he's charging, but what kind of money has he made out of all of this? Since he's been on Cameo, he's charged at least£370 ,000 for the videos. So it's been a nice little earner for him. It's a very considerable amount of money that he's now making alongside his job as an MP. And so you have, what service to journalism, you have looked through more than 4 ,000 of these videos that he's made. What kind of things are people asking him to say? So we didn't actually watch all of the videos, but instead I've read all the transcripts of all of the videos and also read all the transcripts of the requests that people have made.

7:59Now, most of these requests and the videos are pretty innocuous. They are birthday wishes. Andrew and Matthew, your bros, have been in touch and told me you're turning 40. Christmas messages. Christian, happy Christmas. Pep talks for fans of Farage or reform. The good Brexit fight. Thanks to you and to James for fighting in the great battle of our times. But as I continued reading the transcripts of what Farage had said and what he'd been asked to say by the people who were paying him, a few things jumped out. One video which Farage charged£78 for, he was told in the prompt by the Cameo user, vote National Front.

8:41Now Farage didn't say this in the video itself, but he still went ahead and made the video for this person. In another for a 70th birthday message for someone called Ken, he was told of Ken that this guy is a former UKIP supporter and dislikes the gypsies. But he still went ahead and he made a video for Ken. Ken, happy 70th. Have a fabulous day and thank you so much for putting your head up over the parapet and helping in our great historic cause. Then there was one request in particular which linked him to the extreme fringe of the far right, but not the far right in the UK, but instead in Canada.

9:24And who were these people in Canada that asked him to make a video and what did they want him to do for them? They asked him to make this video only 10 days after his election in July 2024. And they paid extra for speedy delivery to get it done within 24 hours. And Farage was asked to do a video promoting the road rage terror tour. Road rage terror tour. And the prompt described this as a Canadian comedy show hosted by three men, Jeremy McKenzie, Derek Harrison and Alex Reend.

9:56Henry Dyer:We welcome too many who now hold sway. They're now writing laws that push us away. For a brighter tomorrow, a path must be found. Back they must go to their own ground. For a future bright, we must take a stand. They have to go back to their own land. Now, this isn't a comedy show. This is extreme far-right content masquerading as comedy. And it's organised by a group called Diagalon. The name of this group is a reference to their logo, which is a white diagonal strip on a black background. Now, this is meant to represent a white ethnostate stretching across North America from Alaska to Florida.

10:40Diagalon had been designated as an extremist group a few years earlier, designated as white nationalists by Justin Trudeau.

10:50Henry Dyer:Diagalon stands against everything we stand for as Canadians. So to give you a flavour of what Diagalon is, on their website, at the time that they were selling tickets for this road rage terror tour, they were also selling copies of a book called Meme Kampf. Oh God. So this is back in July 2024. and this road rage terror tour, like how well publicised was it at the time? If you'd Googled it, what would you have found out about the tour and about who was taking part in it and what kind of comedy it entailed? So he had enough information in the prompt to, with a few seconds of research, identify very clearly who they were.

11:30He knew the name of the event and he had the names of the organisers and a few seconds on Google would have found lots of news stories published very recent to the time that he received the request detailing what this group was like. And he was told that this video, it was meant to be a pep talk for a woman called Andrea Hallworth. Now, Andrea Hallworth is the mayor of a city in Ontario called Hamilton. And this group wanted to bring one of their events to that city. And she'd said,

11:58Henry Dyer:I think we all agree that Hamilton is not a place for hate. And so I think we're all equally appalled by the news of the planned visit to our city by a group that promotes hate. And within days of her publicly speaking out against this group, they had commissioned Nigel Farage to do a video targeting her. The end of the prompt features a request to Farage to repeat what he's told is the subtitle of the show. They have to go back. Now, that's not the subtitle of the show. Instead, this is the rallying call of the group. And it's calling for mass deportations of South Asians in order to create a white ethnostate.

12:35And there's members of Diagon, including Jeremy McKenzie, the leader, explaining that slogan, meaning just get out, just get the fuck out. They have to go back! They have to go back! They have to go back. Now, hello, Andrea Hallworth. It's Nigel Farage here. And we're told you don't like comedy, but your friends are trying to get you to attend Road Rage Terror Tour comedy show. but you're hesitant now look it's hosted by Jeremy McKenzie Derek Harrison and Alex Rend and it's currently the most talked about show in Canada so do you know what Andrea just sometimes in life we're a bit reluctant a bit hesitant to go and do things we don't really fancy doing but for the sake of a couple of hours of an evening why not give it a go you never know you might walk out saying road rage terror tour is the best thing that ever happened and then they gleefully share it on their social media platforms that they've had this message from the British Parliament.

13:33So this is Nigel Farage, a newly elected MP, promoting a far-right comedy tour and essentially goading the mayor of the town where this tour is supposed to take place, who was objected to their presence, saying, oh, come on, Andrea, get over it. Sometimes in life we have to do things that we don't like doing. And then it's used subsequently by the group in videos that they produce as part of a retrospective on the tour that they held. I love it! Rogue rage terror tour is the best thing. forever happen. We have to go back! We have to go back!

14:07Henry Dyer:That's the Canadian people! That's what it means!

14:14It's blatant and open racism. There is anti-Semitic imagery, there are depictions of South Asian people described as strangers at our door taking what's ours in a poem that's read. Right. And there's clips of the leaders of the group putting their hands together, doing Nazi salutes while saying the word racism.

14:37Henry Dyer:Racism! And a clip where a leader of the group makes shooting noises and gestures while saying, I just saw you were brown and I just couldn't help myself. These people are not hiding who they are in any way. And the time it would have taken to consider that request and to reject it would have been no more than a minute. of research. And what has Faraj had to say about the video that he made for the group? So Faraj got back to us yesterday in a statement from a reform spokesman and he said the videos should not be treated as political statements or campaign activity. Attempting to portray these informal messages as evidence of political alignment with the individuals who requested them would therefore be entirely misleading.

15:21Mr Faraj has recorded many thousands of videos for genuine supporters to celebrate weddings, congratulate friends or send novelty messages. At that scale, the occasional mistake can occur. He uses the platform in good faith and without knowledge of the individuals involved beyond what is written for him in the prompt. If individuals or groups subsequently choose to misuse or repurpose a cameo recording, that is clearly outside Mr Farage's knowledge or control.

15:58Were there any other videos that really shocked you? Yeah, so last December, Nigel Farage was asked to make a video for a man named Ben. And according to the video's purchaser, who appeared to be members of his family, and this is the prompt that they gave Farage, Ben is, quote, a long-time reform member. And then they say he was filmed in the 2024 summer riots, breaking up fights and helping stop clashes with police. when objects were thrown at him he threw a bottle that hit the ground and hurt no one he received 16 months in prison off license in days so that's what they told Farage yeah so they laid out all of that context about what Ben had been through what he had done and then they said that he had faced abuse there had been a police marker on their home and they said that all of this could be verified so using the information in that prompt we've identified who Ben is.

16:48He's called Benjamin Taverner and in October 2024 he was given a 16-month sentence for violent disorder. Okay and this was in relation to that summer of riots across the country and he was convicted for taking part in a far-right riot in Bristol which was I think targeting asylum seekers is that right?

17:07Henry Dyer:Yeah. What do we know about what Benjamin Taverner actually did at that riot in Bristol. So we found footage of Taverner at the riots and we can see him on one side, some police horses coming in between and then on the other side some counter protesters and we can see him leaning back with a bottle in his hands and then between two horses arcing a bottle it looks like towards the other group. Now I've spoken to Taverner, he says he wasn't rioting, he says he's not far right and instead he describes himself as patriotic. And whoever has sent Farage this message has really advertised that Ben was sent to prison.

17:45What exactly did the family ask Farage to record for Ben? They said, the country is in ruins and reform is the way forward. Kind words from you would mean the world. So they wanted kind words for Ben, who was leaving, he was coming off licence, finishing the end of his sentence. Ben, it's Nigel Farage here. Lossie and your mum have been in touch to tell me all about the summer riots of 2024 and you doing your bit to try and break the whole thing up. Yeah, it all turned very, very nasty. Now, you clearly got the most incredible prison sentence in Ben, what for the first time we saw and understood to be two-tier Britain.

18:21Absolutely outrageous in every way. And I know you've really, really been through the middle. I'm sorry. I'm genuinely sorry. You're not alone, but that's cold comfort farm. It's absolutely rotten. All I can say is keep your head up, keep believing in the right things, keep acting in the right way. And in the end, do you know something, Ben? In the end, good triumphs over evil. And that's the great battle that we're on because our country is in the most desperate plight. So look, all the very best to you and thank you for your support. And I'm with you as well. Well, there is quite a lot to unpack there, isn't there?

18:57Let's start with the phrase that Nigel Farage said. So keep believing in the right things, keep acting in the right way. So he's directing this at somebody that he knows has just spent 16 months in prison, so has been convicted of some kind of crime. What do you read into what Fraud is saying there? It's striking. He's been told what Benjamin Tavener did in terms of throwing a bottle as part of riots that were happening in Bristol. And he knows the origins of that disorder. And he's suggesting that the things that Benjamin Taverner did, which he knows led him to 16 months of a sentence, were acting in the right way.

19:39Farage decided to offer his support to this guy in exchange for money. He's profiting off doing this. Yeah, how much did he make for that? For this video, he charged£141. And the risk for Farage is that he's making money off supporting someone who was convicted for taking part in far-right riots because he has made a very big deal out of looking to distance himself from people like Tommy Robinson and he says he has done quote more than anyone else to defeat the far-right in Britain. And what did Faraj have to say about this particular video? He didn't address questions about this video specifically but you know his position is he makes thousands of these videos mistakes happen and that they're not evidence of his political leanings.

20:25He's also said he's long been clear in his opposition to extremism and to political violence.

20:41So did you find any other examples amid all of these videos of him really leaning into far-right talking points or far-right memes? Yeah, I saw this phrase pop up again and again. And it's this term, if and doubts, kick them out. One academic I've spoken to described it as a well-established far-right slogan and it's used to refer to minority groups of people and if there's any kind of question over whether they should be here, deporting them. Now, Farage has been asked to use this phrase for years. So there are 26 requests that mention the if and doubt, kick them out term. And there's four ways that he handled the request The first time he's asked to use it, he actually recommends you should be careful.

21:27You're considering a podcast with a title, Kick Them Out. Liam, that could be misconstrued is all I would warn you. Maybe think about a different title. So that shows straight away that first time he's asked that we are aware of, that he knows there could be some question marks of this phrase. But then there's a few other occasions where he repeats the phrase. Now, remember, if in doubt, kick them out. I'm asked to add, if in doubt, kick them out. But then in most of the occasions where he uses the phrase, instead he does it by alluding to it. And if in doubt, get rid of those who ought not to be here.