Did Farage hide Brexit result poll to help City pals?

NIGEL Farage knew the results of private polls suggesting Leave would win the Brexit referendum when he conceded defeat on the night, it was claimed yesterday.

The allegation – furiously denied by the former Ukip leader – follows an investigation into how City hedge funds made hundreds of millions of pounds from the result.

Speculators used data from polling companies to predict the outcome and reaped a fortune by betting against the value of the pound, Bloomberg News said.

One trader is reported to have made £225million. As polls closed on the night of June 23, 2016, Mr Farage appeared on TV to concede defeat.

At 10pm – in a statement recorded 20 minutes earlier – he told Sky News it had been an ‘extraordinary referendum campaign, turnout looks to be exceptionally high and it looks like Remain will edge it’. Just after 11pm Mr Farage told the Press Association news agency that Remain would ‘edge it’ – and cited an exit poll.

He said: ‘If I am wrong, I would be thrilled. But it is what we have seen out and about, and what I know from some of my friends in the financial markets who have done some big polling.’

At the time the pound rose above $1.50, its highest level in six months, in a frenzy of speculation that Remain would win. It later crashed when the first results came in, hitting $1.32 around 5.30am.

Mr Farage made the claims despite having ‘information suggesting his side had actually won’ before 10pm, Bloomberg suggested.

But yesterday the former commodities broker rejected the suggestion his comments were aimed at moving the markets. He told the Mail the story was ‘a load of c**k’, adding: ‘I had no prior knowledge of any polling before 10pm and to suggest so is completely untrue. After the polls closed I received conflicting opinions, one said Leave, the others said Remain. There was all sorts of rumour and gossip.

‘I had no financial interest in any currency movements of any kind on that day.

‘This is another wild conspiracy theory to try to discredit anyone involved in the Leave campaign.’

Bloomberg quoted Mr Farage as saying those ‘who trade short-term markets and lose money shouldn’t complain, because that’s the game’. The report also suggested he had repeatedly changed his account of what he knew about the results of polling conducted by Survation, a company run by his friend Damian Lyons-Lowe.

It quoted Mr Farage saying that Mr Lyons-Lowe’s poll correctly predicted the result and that as a result City hedge funds ‘did very well out of it’. He told Bloomberg he learned the results of that poll ‘minutes after’ 10pm but not before.

The report revealed at least six polling companies were hired by hedge funds, including ICM, YouGov, Survation, BMG, and ComRes.

A YouGov spokesman said: ‘We are proud to always operate strictly within the codes of conduct of our industry.’

The other firms made no comment.

‘All sorts of rumour and gossip’