Publisher Richard Desmond has donated £1 million to UKIP to bolster the party’s coffers ahead of the General Election.
In a statement released on the Express website, Mr Desmond said he had donated the money because the party was “not run by elitists” and stood up for “good, ordinary British people.”
Speaking to Breitbart London, Mr Farage said the money came with “no strings attached” and doesn’t need to be spent in South Thanet, where he himself is running as a candidate, but “will be used to help with our ongoing campaigns.”
In a statement UKIP said the money would help “significantly” in its fight “against the big battalions”.
“They are human; they are not perfect and they do not pretend to be. But what they believe in is the best for the British people,” Mr Desmond said.
“They are the sort of people who will stand up for people who are struggling.”
The owner of Northern and Shell, which publishes the Daily and Sunday Express as well as OK! and Now! magazines previously donated £100,000 to the Labour party in 2001.
Mr Farage had spent the day avoiding press interviews ahead of the opposition leaders’ debate tonight, saying he was “busy fundraising”.
Mr Desmond said his support for Ukip was partly inspired by the experience of seeing his locally-run coffee shop forced out of business by Starbucks, the multi-national chain that has come under fire for paying virtually no corporation tax in the UK for over 16 years.
“These are the sort of people who should be protected,” Mr Desmond said of hard-pressed small business owners.
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