Nigel Farage has admitted he misspoke when he claimed to have bought a house in his constituency of Clacton, saying the property is in fact solely owned by his long-term partner.<\/p>\n
The Guardian revealed in May<\/a> that the detached property in an upmarket part of Clacton-on-Sea was actually solely bought by Laure Ferrari, and when approached by the newspaper the Reform UK leader insisted his name did not appear because of \u201csecurity reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n Farage had claimed to be the buyer of the property last November, in hope of dismissing criticism that he had not been spending enough time in is constituency.<\/p>\n But on the final day of Reform\u2019s conference in Birmingham, he admitted he was wrong to say he had \u201cexchanged contracts\u201d on the Clacton house.<\/p>\n He told Sky News: \u201cI should have said \u2018we\u2019.\u201d Pushed again that he doesn\u2019t actually own a house in Clacton, Farage added: \u201cI should, I should have said \u2018we\u2019. All right? My partner bought it, so what?\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cAll right. I shouldn\u2019t have said \u2018we\u2019. I should have said \u2018we\u2019. It\u2019s her money. It\u2019s her asset. I own none of it. But I just happen to spend some time there.\u201d<\/p>\n Farage added: \u201cYou know what? It\u2019s a really funny thing in life. But sometimes we all say things that we perhaps shouldn\u2019t quite have said.<\/p>\n \u201cI should have rephrased it. I didn\u2019t want to put her [Ferrari] in the public domain.\u201d<\/p>\n When he was initially asked last November about how much time he actually spent in Clacton, he told Sky News: \u201cI\u2019ve just exchanged contracts on the house that I\u2019ll be living there in \u2013 is that good enough?\u2026 I\u2019ve bought a house in Clacton. What more do you want me to do?\u201d<\/p>\n He had also told LBC in January he bought the Clacton property, adding: \u201cThat\u2019s why you can see me out, often on a Saturday morning, out buying the essentials \u2013 limes, tonic, all that sort of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Farage had been challenged earlier this year over whether the property had been bought in Ferrari\u2019s name in a way that allowed him legally to avoid higher-rate stamp duty on the purchase of an additional residential house \u2013 given that he already owned other properties.<\/p>\n He was also asked whether he was the ultimate source of funds for the transaction, either by gift, or loan and whether it was Ferrari\u2019s sole property in the UK, which could then make her eligible for standard rate stamp duty.<\/p>\n Richard Tice, the party\u2019s deputy leader, said Farage\u2019s tax affairs were \u201cirrelevant\u201d to voters.<\/p>\n However, Farage had said Angela Rayner\u2019s resignation over her tax affairs \u201cscreams entitlement\u201d during his speech to the Reform UK<\/a> party conference.<\/p>\n The Reform UK leader declared a general election could be held as early as 2027 in his main conference speech. But when asked if he would publish his tax return if he became prime minister he told Sky News: \u201cI think it\u2019s probably an imposition too far.\u201d<\/p>\n When pressed Farage added: \u201cHaving said that, you know, at the point I become prime minister, then all of my business interests would have to be passed over to a trust anyway. So I think, frankly, that\u2019s, you know, it wouldn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n He insisted his tax returns would be \u201cnobody\u2019s business\u201d.<\/p>\n