Claim d62038b3Checked 09 Jul 2026
FalseOn the truth scale
You don’t get many 50-year-old money-brokers.
Nigel Farage·Nigel Farage - High Profiles·ArticleFactual · quantitative empirical
Reasoning & Evidence09 Jul 2026
The best public evidence I found contradicts the idea that 50-year-old people are rare in this part of the City workforce. The ONS defines the relevant broker occupation as one that deals in commodities, stocks, shares and foreign exchange, including stockbrokers and traders. In 2011, the Financial Services Authority told Parliament that a March 2010 survey of 48,000 advisers found 16% were aged 50–54, 11% were 55–59, and 12% were 60+, and that this profile covered advisers working in IFAs, banks and stockbrokers. That means 39% were 50 or older, so the claim that you "don’t get many 50-year-old money-brokers" is not supported as a general factual statement. Sources: ONS, "Standard Occupational Classification 2010 volume 1 Structure and description of unit groups"; UK Parliament, "Supplementary written evidence submitted by the Financial Services Authority". (ons.gov.uk)
From article
The pressure of being a market-maker in a busy market, when you’ve got people all around you screaming and shouting at you and you’re dealing in numbers and it’s like that, that, that, that – that’s pretty pressurised. That’s why it’s a young man’s job. You don’t get many 50-year-old money-brokers: they can’t do it any more. Goodness me! It’s not an easy job. Not an easy job. When I joined the City, it was the dying days of a gentlemen’s club: magnificent, socially wonderful but going nowhere – there was still a whiff of P G Wodehouse about people who toddled off to the City all day and did things that nobody understood at all. But what I saw in the Eighties and Nineties was London becoming in many ways a genuine global centre for entrepreneurial flair, for innovation, for very hard work – and for creating profits. And without those profits we can’t have the schools and hospitals we need in this country – it’s very, very simple. I am absolutely not conflicted in any way at all about the fact that what we did, overall, was for a social good.
Sources opened+ 143 search hits considered
[1]ons.gov.uk
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/adhocs/006056ct06252011censusoccupation4digitsbysexbyageenglandandwalesregions
[2]publications.parliament.uk
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmtreasy/857/857we04.htm
[3]nomisweb.co.uk
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/dc6603ew
[4]publications.parliament.uk
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmtreasy/857/857fwe157.htm
[5]ons.gov.uk
https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=%2Femploymentandlabourmarket%2Fpeopleinwork%2Femploymentandemployeetypes%2Fadhocs%2F006056ct06252011censusoccupation4digitsbysexbyageenglandandwalesregions%2Fct06252011censusoccupation4digitsbysexbyageenglandandwalesregions.xls
[6]researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7946/CBP-7946.pdf
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