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Nigel Farage’s firm pocketed nearly half a million pounds in two years, as he portrayed himself as a man of the people and wooed working-class voters.

The anti-EU leader also pleaded for cash for his Brexit Party during afternoon tea at The Ritz, we can reveal.

Mr Farage is touring the country hosting rallies for Leave supporters, ahead of Thursday’s EU election, a poll his party is favourite to top.

Part of his appeal is a carefully crafted image contrasting him with Westminster politicians and the “metropolitan elite”.

(Image: Jeff J Mitchell)

But research by the anti-Brexit People’s Vote campaign paints a revealing picture of the former UKIP leader.

Publicly available Companies House records show assets held by Mr Farage’s company, Thorn in the Side, soared from £77,893 according to accounts up to date in May 2016, to £548,573 in May last year.

A declaration to the European Parliament in 2017 revealed he trousers €30,000 a month for “broadcast contracts”. He also gets €8,757 a month as an MEP.

Pro-EU Labour MP Ian Murray said: “Nigel Farage has made himself rich as a snake oil salesman for Brexit. You don’t get more metropolitan elite than Farage. He’s no more a man of the people than he’s a teetotal vegetarian.”

(Image: Martin Dalton/REX)

Anti-Brexit campaigners also found a video, apparently from April, of Mr Farage asking self-styled “Ritz rebels” to fund his party.

In it he says: “Any support – whether it’s verbal, getting your friends involved, giving us money – we need all the help we can get.”

A party spokesman hit back at Mr Farage’s critics saying: “People of this country do not hate success, they applaud success. They hate hypocrisy, and he is no hypocrite.”