Nigel Farage's career trajectory clearly shows a transition from business to politics. After leaving school in 1982, he worked as a commodities trader at several City firms (Drexel Burnham Lambert, Crédit Lyonnais Rouse, Refco, Natixis Metals). He formed his own brokerage, Farage Limited, in 2003. According to Companies House records, he resigned as a director of Farage Limited on 6 February 2006 (when he became UKIP leader) and resigned as company secretary on 6 February 2011 — ten months before this December 2011 interview. The company itself later entered a voluntary arrangement and was dissolved. By the time of the interview, Farage had been an MEP since 1999 and UKIP leader since 2006. He had severed his formal business roles. Multiple sources, including a Financial Times profile cited by City AM, noted that his City career was "probably a bit of a misnomer" in terms of great success, and that he likely "does better out of being an MEP." One of his metals broking firms went insolvent. The claim that he was "no longer pursuing his former course of succeeding in business and making money" is supported by the observable evidence: by December 2011, he had stepped away from all his business roles and was a full-time politician. His resignation as secretary of Farage Limited in February 2011 marked the end of his formal involvement in the business. It is worth noting that his characterization of "grinding poverty" is an exaggeration — his MEP salary was approximately £64,000–84,000 per year (depending on the period), and he had claimed roughly £2 million in expenses and allowances by 2009. However, the specific claim being verified — that he was no longer pursuing the business career he had as a young man — is accurate. Sources: - Companies House, UK government — Farage Limited officer appointments and resignations: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/tW56blTqOI_bXYCDkDghRy3LQtU/appointments - Companies House — Farage Limited filing history: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04659240/filing-history - 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 Observer (via Guardian archive) — "Ukip leader boasts of his £2m in expenses": https://web.archive.org/web/20090527061523/http:/www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/24/mps-expenses-ukip-nigel-farage - New Statesman — "Nigel Farage plans to pocket his £84,000 MEP salary until we officially quit the EU": https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2016/07/nigel-farage-plans-pocket-his-84000-mep-salary-until-we-officially-quit-eu - Wikipedia — Nigel Farage (early career section): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Farage