Nigel Farage: PA job advert receives over 700 applications

Fake advert for job as UKIP leader's PA sees over 600 UK nationals apply

The role of Nigel Farage’s PA has become the most sought-after job in Britain, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

Hundreds have applied to be Nigel Farage’s PA, after the Ukip leader said that “nobody”, except for his wife, was capable of doing the job.

Following Nigel Farage’s comments on why he was employing his German wife as his PA instead of a British citizen, a fake advert for the role received 764 applications in the space of just 12 hours.

Speaking to the BBC’s chief political correspondent Nick Robinson, Farage defended his decision on employing his spouse at the same time as publishing posters claiming unemployed Europeans were taking British jobs.

Explaining his decision, he said "nobody else could do the job" that his wife did, and that she earned "a very modest salary, working extremely unsociable hours for me and being available up to seven days a week".

In light of the comments made by Farage, recruitment agency Xpat jobs published a fake advert for the job of PA to a “Top European Politician” with affiliation to UKIP.

Skills needed for successful applicants included, “being able to work long and some unsociable hours up to seven days a week," while the pay was described as “modest.”

Within half a day the 764 applications had been received, with 649 being from UK nationals.

On receiving the applications Xpat jobs, who specialise in multilingual recruitment, said they would pass on the 25 best CVs to Nigel Farage himself.

Commenting on the job post, Rhys Maddock director of Xpat jobs, said: "With our knowledge of the UK and European employment market, we just knew that what Farage was saying was not true.”

Adding: "They would definitely be willing to put the long hours in, although they may want to change the sleeping arrangements that go with the current post."

The comments from Farage came after his Ukip party released a controversial poster campaign yesterday that called on people to “take back control of their country” and claimed that British jobs were being taken by European immigrants.

While some politicians called the campaign “racist”, Farage defended the £1.5 million campaign saying that the posters were a “hard-hitting reflection of reality” and saying that a “political earthquake was on its way.”