The claim is Farage's personal assertion that he and his City colleagues in the 1980s were genuinely working hard — not, as the interviewer's "gravy train" framing suggested, earning money for doing nothing. Public evidence confirms that Farage did work as a commodities trader in the City from 1982, first at Drexel Burnham Lambert (via Maclaine Watson) and then at Crédit Lyonnais Rouse from 1986. Multiple sources describe the 1980s City trading environment as high-pressure, busy, and with real accountability (traders could be and were fired for losses). The BBC profile notes Farage "earned a more-than-comfortable living" and was popular among clients and fellow traders. However, the claim's core — that the money earned was justified by genuine effort and was not "for doing nothing" — is fundamentally a subjective personal judgment about the relationship between work and compensation. While the factual backdrop (he worked as a trader, the environment was demanding, there was accountability) is corroborated, the ultimate assertion is about a personal, qualitative experience that cannot be objectively verified or refuted through public evidence. Additionally, some sources (e.g., a metals broker quoted by the FT) suggest Farage's City career was "relatively modest" and that the notion he was "a very wealthy man in the City is probably a bit of a misnomer," which complicates the "earning a lot of money" part but doesn't directly address whether the work was demanding. This is essentially a personal recollection about subjective experience. Sources: BBC News, "Profile: Nigel Farage, UKIP leader" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20543513); BBC News, "The Nigel Farage story" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36701855); City AM, "I'm A Celeb star Nigel Farage had failed London company before politics" (https://www.cityam.com/im-a-celeb-star-nigel-farage-had-city-career-including-failed-brokerage-that-went-insolvent/); The Week, "Nigel Farage: what the Brexit Party leader was doing before politics" (https://theweek.com/63016/nigel-farage-what-the-brexit-party-leader-was-doing-before-politics); Wikipedia, "Nigel Farage" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage)