Nigel Farage sacks Brexit Party staff after general election disaster Senior officials have been made redundant, casting the party’s future into question

Nigel Farage has made Brexit Party staff redundant after its disastrous election result.

Party workers including senior officials were told after the 12 December general election that they were being let go, raising questions over the future of the party.



Mr Farage has raised at least £11.5m for the Brexit Party in the past year and has vowed to turn it into the Reform Party after Britain leaves the EU.

But it is now unclear how he plans to proceed after laying off most of the staff hired before the election. One source told i: “Straight after the election we were all told we had to look for other jobs.”

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It is standard practice for political parties to take on workers on short-term contracts which expire at the end of an election campaign. But most also retain a large core of permanent staff to bridge the period between elections.

The Brexit Party was founded just under a year ago but Mr Farage tapped both wealthy donors and grassroots supporters for millions in funding.

Large donors handed over at least £8.6m, according to Electoral Commission figures, with most of that coming from Thailand-based businessman Christopher Harborne and financier Jeremy Hosking.

Hollowed out

The party has also taken in millions from ordinary voters: members of the public could pay £25 to become a “registered supporter” of the Brexit Party.

Mr Farage claimed to have signed up at least 115,000 supporters, suggesting the party raised at least £2.9m through that avenue.

But its failure to win any Commons seats has cut off one potential source of regular funding. If the Brexit Party had returned at least one MP it would have been eligible for taxpayer-backed “short money”, which funds the activities of opposition parties, starting at £130,000 a year and rising sharply depending on the number of seats won.

Mr Farage has insisted that he will not shut down the Brexit Party entirely despite its poor election performance and the fact that Brexit is now certain to happen next month.

He said: “It will have to reform into the Reform Party, it’ll have to campaign to change politics for good, get rid of the House of Lords, change the voting system, so much to do.”

The party managed to come second in just two parliamentary seats and in some areas appears to have split the pro-Leave vote, allowing Labour MPs such as Yvette Cooper and Ed Miliband to see off the Conservatives and keep their seats.