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Your support makes all the difference.Nigel Farage has accused EU authorities of behaving like “the Soviet inquisitors” after an investigation was launched into the alleged misspending of taxpayers’ cash by his party.
Mr Farage, who still leads the Ukip group of MEPs in the European Parliament but has stepped down as overall leader, said he and other eurosceptics were being “victimised”.
The UK’s Electoral Commission last month opened an investigation into whether Ukip misspent around £400,000 of taxpayers’ EU funding in its own electioneering.
Separately, the European Parliament has also drawn up a report alleging that money meant to support the party's fuctions at a European level was used as “indirect financing of a national political party” and “a referendum campaign” – both of which are prohibited.
Mr Farage told the BBC’s World At One programme: “What we’ve seen since Brexit is all the wills being thrown out of the window and every single eurosceptic party and group wilfully being victimised by a system that really reminds me of the Soviet inquisitors.
“They’ve made their minds up that you’re guilty regardless of the evidence. We utterly, utterly reject what’s being said and we’ll go to court over it.”
Asked why Ukip was yet to publish a round of expenses, Mr Farage said: “We’ve been busy doing other stuff.” He clarified that this was a separate issue to the EU funding investigation.
Mr Farage was replaced by Paul Nuttal as his party's leader in the most recent election. He was previously replaced by Diane James, who lasted a matter of days in the role before she stepped down and triggered a further leadership election, during which time Mr Farage returned as interim leader.
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