For many, Cameo – the site where you can pay celebrities to send personalised video messages – is a bit of fun. For Nigel Farage, it’s a lucrative extra job. Recording several a day, he has charged at least £374,893 for them since he joined the platform five years ago. But what has he been saying in them and who has he been making them for?
Investigations correspondent Henry Dyer has been looking at the videos and found some disturbing messages. The Reform leader endorsed a neo-Nazi event and repeated extremist slogans. He also charged £155 for one video he made for a man he was told had received a 16-month sentence for his involvement in a far-right riot. In others he references antisemitic conspiracy theories and makes misogynistic remarks about leftwing politicians – including a comment about the US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s breasts.
A Reform UK spokesperson said Farage’s videos “should not be treated as political statements or campaign activity. Attempting to portray these informal messages as evidence of political alignment with the individuals who requested them would therefore be entirely misleading.” Because he had recorded thousands of videos for supporters, “the occasional mistake can occur” they said and Farage has been “clear in his opposition to extremism and political violence”.
But, Henry tells Helen Pidd: “I think the video shows what he’s willing to say for money, ultimately, and what he is willing to do for money. And this is someone who wants to be the next prime minister”
