Nigel Farage and his fellow Ukip MEPs will continue to pocket their £84,000 a year salaries for the foreseeable future, the party has confirmed.
Parliamentarians get €8,213.02 a month before tax, or €98,556 (£83,959) a year, plus thousands of euros to spend on office costs, travel expenses and daily expenditure.
And as it is paid in euros, British MEPs will find their spending money goes further than before when they change it into sterling.
Thanks to the plunging pound, they’ve effectively received a £8,938 pay rise since the Brexit vote.
Some MEPs, such as the Scottish nationalist MEP Alyn Smith, choose to take a lower salary in line with UK parliamentarians.
But not Ukip.
A Ukip spokesman told The Staggers: “UKIP MEPs have a mandate from the people who elect them and get paid like every other MEP.
“They will continue to represent their electorate until they leave the European Union.”
Farage, who stood down as Ukip leader, said he plans to continue to speak in the European Parliament “from time to time”.
His last notable appearance was after the Brexit vote, when he told his colleagues they had never done a proper job in their lives. He was asked in response: “Why are you here?”
Farage himself is one of the biggest skivers from parliamentary sessions. He is ranked 746th out of 751 MEPs when it comes to voting on things.
Ukip MEPs are not the only Eurosceptics we send to Brussels (Exhibit A: Tory MEP Daniel Hannan). But the European Parliament tells us: “We are not aware of any members notifying us that they will not be taking their salaries.”
The parliamentary spokeswoman also confirmed that as the results of the referendum do not trigger an automatic withdrawal, British MEPs in theory retain their mandate until the next European Election in 2019.
That’s a lot of Brussels lunches for Nigel Farage and co.
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