Nigel Farage “will not take a penny” of £153.000 MEP golden goodbye

The UK’s 73 MEPs were due to be informed about their exit arrangements at a special meeting at the European parliament in Strasbourg on Monday night

Nigel Farage “will not take a penny” of the £153,000 windfall he could claim for his 20-year stint as a member of the European parliament, his spokesman has said, as the UK’s 73 MEPs are set to be told on Monday night about any cash payouts they are due.

Farage could leave the EU on 31 January with a pre-tax golden goodbye worth €178,657 (£152,992) under a European parliament “transition allowance” for ex-MEPs, a calculation based on his 20 complete years since 1999.

Asked about the transition allowance, a spokesman for Farage said: “He won’t take a penny.”

In 2017, Farage told Sky News he would “probably” take the money, but did not expect the parliament to give it to him.

The UK’s 73 MEPs were due to be informed about their exit arrangements at a special meeting at the European parliament in Strasbourg on Monday night. It is the third such briefing, reflecting the shifting Brexit date, from 29 March 2019, to 31 October and now 31 January 2020.

Most of Farage’s Brexit Party MEPs, such as Annunziata Rees-Mogg and Richard Tice, will quit the EU stage without any prospect of an EU golden goodbye, as they have been MEPs for less than one year, so are not entitled to the allowance.

Read more: yahoo