{"id":397203,"date":"2026-01-29T17:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/397203\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T17:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:09:09","slug":"nigel-farage-meets-uae-ministers-and-drums-up-donations-on-dubai-trip-nigel-farage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/397203\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage meets UAE ministers and drums up donations on Dubai trip | Nigel Farage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigel Farage has paid a visit to Dubai to build diplomatic relations with United Arab Emirates<\/a> ministers and drum up donations for Reform UK from wealthy expats.<\/p>\n

The two-night trip was his second visit to the Gulf state in two months, after a \u00a310,000 trip hosted by Abu Dhabi to attend the Formula One grand prix.<\/p>\n

Farage\u2019s ability to secure an audience with foreign government ministers is a new development, as his diplomatic ties have previously been largely with Donald Trump\u2019s US administration.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a GB News event, Farage said he had had a \u201cvery good interview\u201d with an unnamed UAE minister on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

One of those present at the event was the UAE industry minister, Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the state oil company Adnoc and a former chair of the UAE\u2019s national media council.<\/p>\n

Farage gave a brief speech at the event, held in honour of GB News\u2019 fifth anniversary, at the Aura Skypool<\/a>, a 50-storey venue that boasts the world\u2019s \u201chighest infinity pool\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the sidelines of the event, he said he had spoken to \u201cloads\u201d of British expats during his stay, trying to secure backing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s loads of expats [in Dubai]. Many of them would like to come back to the UK,\u201d he said, citing taxation and crime as reasons Britons were choosing to live abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to loads of people like that,\u201d he said, adding that the trip was unlikely to result in any donation announcements.<\/p>\n

Among the other attenders were the former Conservative chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, who defected to Reform this month, along with his wife, Lana, as well as senior members of GB News such as its owner, Paul Marshall, and local businesspeople and financiers.<\/p>\n

Farage, who said he was in Dubai primarily for \u201csunshine\u201d and to support GB News, gave a short speech in which he praised the news network. \u201cThey all laughed at us,\u201d he said, harking back to remarks he made in the European parliament after the Brexit result. \u201cThey\u2019re not laughing now, are they?\u201d<\/p>\n

Farage held two invitation-only events on Tuesday, including a private lunch opposite the Jumeirah Burj Al Arab hotel, which Bloomberg reported was backed by the Indian billionaire Sunny Varkey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Varkey, a Dubai resident, is worth $4bn, according to Forbes magazine, and owns the schools operator GEMS Education.<\/p>\n

Farage declined to comment on whether Varkey, whom he called a \u201cnice chap\u201d, had suggested donating to Reform UK<\/a>, saying: \u201cEven if he had, I wouldn\u2019t discuss it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December, Reform received the largest donation ever made to a UK party, when the expatriated crypto investor Christopher Harborne gave \u00a39m<\/a>.<\/p>\n

GB News, whose financial backers include the Dubai-based investment company Legatum<\/a>, paid Farage more than \u00a3200,000 last year, according to parliamentary records<\/a>. The MP hosts a show for the channel four times a week.<\/p>\n

Farage said the UK \u201chas a lot to learn\u201d from the UAE, which he praised for its low crime rate, entrepreneurship, \u201csensible\u201d taxes and for banning the Muslim Brotherhood<\/a>, which the UK government has resisted proscribing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are all the things that we\u2019re going to do in the United Kingdom,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to win the next election. And many of you who have come to Dubai will suddenly find London a more attractive place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage has paid a visit to Dubai to build diplomatic relations with United Arab Emirates ministers and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-397203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}