I can’t stand Mr. Fartrage, but I LOVE Marmite!
Well well well…
Nigel Farage declined offer of taxpayer-funded security
The Reform UK leader was offered the protection following police advice on the threats he faced.
He had already been receiving publicly-funded security prior to this, and felt that his package had been downgraded.
It would have given Farage a similar level of security to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and some high-profile Cabinet ministers
I just saw a brilliant conspiracy theory that Farage and Reform are talking up the security risk so that he has an excuse to withdraw from the by-election because it’s “unsafe” and he can therefore avoid embarrassment then stand in the general election.
It’s just wacky enough to be feasible, like all the best conspiracy theories.
Must be honest, I do enjoy a good conspiracy theory. Some are simply funny, others enjoyable for their fact selection making them seem plausible, yet others for their possibility in an alternative universe - or a mix of all, or none besides. They find a path to a desired interpretation.
Would that mean, no more Farage? And Count Binface is Clactons new MP?
In theory, it’s possible though I think unlikely.
He can withdraw up until 4pm on Friday so, if he were to withdraw at 3:55pm it would be too late for any of the big parties to nominate candidates.
I see that Zia Yusuf has come up with a “round the clock” security plan for all 650 MPs at a cost of £100M. A quick back of the envelope puts that at £154k per MP so I’m curious where they’re going to get adequate security expertise on the minimum wage.
BBC News - Reform UK proposes £100m ‘round-the-clock’ security plan for MPs
Fag packet sums I made it £114 million. And that’s paying one security guard £20 an hour.
A future Chancellor, obviously!!
Is that including all the employment costs or just on headline salary?
Assuming it would be somewhat similar to the Leader of the Opposition, that would be car, driver and 1 close protection officer per MP. So 8 people per MP (for 24/7 cover) and hundreds of cars plus a management team to manage the people and vehicles. £100M sounds like a fantasy number so, as @Porridge says, definitely a candidate for chancellor.
Not going well for Farage
Labour, Lib Dem, Green and the three Tories left in the local office should be out campaigning for Count Binface for the sheer pleasure of seeing Farage loose to a bloke with a bin on his head (also I suspect he would make quite a good MP for the area - at least he might try and turn up more than zero times in two years).
Absolute basic minimum. Each MP has one security guard 24 hours. As you say, it’s a massive underestimate.
As Ed Davy said in parliament - I would never vote for a joke candidate who would lead us nowhere. So I must support Binface!
I would expect roles to be combined - but you need at least four people for 24/7 cover - for starters you need 3x 8 hour shifts per day (realistically a bit longer for handover), then weekend cover (equivalent to 21 working weeks or half a year/person), then annual leave cover is another 98 days - rounding up to a whole number of employees gives four.
At minimum wage that’s £69 million net of employer’s NI. In fact I presume the government gets to calculate the cost of paying workers from the public purse as the net** rate without tax or NI so actually it would be lower, about £59 million.
At a notional £20 an hour for your security guards it is £87 million.
**: Well, that probably depends whether it wants to inflate the cost or minimise it for political motives - eg I am sure that the “this is how much we give to the NHS” figure will include full staff costs despite the fact that tax and NI goes straight back into the exchequer.
I was never very good at maths but 650 MPs, three guards per day, 365 days, 24 hours per day, £20 per hour. I got £455 million. And then £340 million. Surely it’s far more that £69?
Assume the net cost is £35k per security officer per year (actually for “official” security they have to be serving police officers so salary net of income tax and NI might be higher).
£35k x 650 = £22,750,000
Times that by four because of needing four (at least) for 24/7 cover is £91,000,000 unless I’ve missed an “0” somewhere (I think I said £87 million but that was for 20 quid an hour which is less than £35k a year).
How are you getting 10x the amount?
£69 million was for minimum wage - I don’t think even the UK is tight enough to pay police officers minimum wage.
Maybe but if there’s actually a perceived security threat, rather than doing some security theatre, that doesn’t really work. I chose that construct because that’s what the leader of the opposition has. You don’t typically want to be leaving the car unattended in an uncontrolled environment nor do you want to leave your principal unattended while you’re away parking the car, so two is really the minimum.
The average for a parliamentary protection officer is in the region of £77k plus about another £30-40k for pension, employer’s NI, etc.
That’s before we even talk about travel and subsistence as they shadow their principal.
So, on the most simplistic of calculations we’re on around £280M just on salary related costs for the protection officers. Let’s say half of that for the drivers (a courageous assumption as Sir Humphrey might say) brings us to £420M per annum and that’s before looking at travel and accommodation costs, fleet procurement and management plus all of the over admin overhead. Not to forget finding and training a huge number of people.
Regardless of the cost, it would be a huge change in security posture from the present day. I would regularly meet defence ministers off the Eurostar and it would just be the minister and their assistant. When he was Secretary of State for Defence, I even met Michael Fallon strolling down Horse Guards
Which is exactly what they are doing, I suspect.
The thing is that the government is at liberty to disregard income tax, NI and employer’s NI in calculating costs if it wishes - everything is paid net - by the government.
OK I take your point about subsistence. etc.
Plus, once bureaucracy is layered on I suspect that you are right - quadruple the core cost at least 
I bumped into lord Carrington (when he was head of the FO) he was with 2 lovely Bull Terriers, I was obv much more interested in the BTs but he was v nice.