Nigel Farage’s wife confronted senior UKIP member Godfrey Bloom four years ago over her husband’s close friendship with Laure Ferrari, MailOnline has learned.
Angry Kirsten Farage accused Mr Bloom for being responsible for the burgeoning relationship because he had brought Miss Ferrari into UKIP.
She told Mr Bloom in a tense encounter: ‘I blame you for introducing Laure to the party.’
The show-down took place at the East India Club, a traditional gentlemen’s club in St James’s in central London, a stone’s throw from the Houses of Parliament, during an early evening fundraising event.
Fancy dress: Kirsten Farage confronted Godfrey Bloom about Laure Ferrari in 2013 at a Ukip fundraiser, blaming him for hiring her and introducing her to Nigel. Pictured: Miss Ferrari and Bloom at his cowboy themed birthday party
Fun loving: The confrontation between Mrs Farage and Mr Bloom took place at the East India Club, a traditional gentlemen’s club in St James’, a stone’s throw from the Houses of Parliament, during a fundraising event two years ago. Pictured: A lively Miss Ferrari
Angry: Kirsten Farage was described as ‘very angry’ when she accosted Godfrey Bloom four years ago. Last week, she said she and her husband had lived separate lives ‘for years’ and he had moved out of the family home last year
Defensive: Both Miss Ferrari and Farage have dismissed rumours of an affair, with the former Ukip leader describing the claims as ‘ludicrous’. Pictured: She was seen outside Farage’s home last week, casually dressed and dealing with the bins, having spent the night at the property
In trouble: Mr Bloom had come under fire because he had unwittingly tried to make Farage’s wife and Miss Ferrari attend the same event in 2014. Pictured: The £4million London home Farage is borrowing from a friend and sharing with his French friend
‘Kirsten had a right go at Godfrey about Laure about four years ago,’ a UKIP source told MailOnline.
‘Kirsten blamed Godfrey for Nigel’s relationship with Laure because he was the one who gave her a job.
‘Kirsten confronted Godfrey at a UKIP fundraiser. She was very angry.
‘There was no actual scene but Kirsten was very cross.’
Mr Bloom, then MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, had come under fire because he had unwittingly arranged for Farage’s wife and Miss Ferrari attend the same event.
He had fought for vivacious, charming and attractive Miss Ferrari to attend the fund-raising event knowing she would be a hit with donors.
But when Mrs Farage discovered she was being forced to share the room with her she hit the roof, the source claimed.
The relationship between Mr Farage, 52, and Miss Ferrari, 37, came under the spotlight last week after she was photographed outside his £4 million borrowed London bachelor pad last week.
Meanwhile his humiliated wife – the mother of the couple’s two young daughters – has conceded that their marriage has been over for years.
Laure Ferrari joined UKIP staff in 2007 to work as a parliamentary assistant to Mr Bloom.
University days: Mr Bloom and Mr Farage first met the vivacious French woman when she worked as a waitress at their favourite Strasbourg watering hole, the Cornichon Masque. Miss Ferrari loves hip hop and was nicknamed ‘Sporty Spice’ at university in Strasbourg
Shared views: Miss Ferrari worked for two years for Mr Bloom before she became a member of the EU civil service working for UKIP in Brussels and in Strasbourg. Friends say she has long held the belief that Britain should leave the EU – a view she shares passionately with Farage
Outspoken: A vocal supporter of Brexit, she would tell friends how Farage was a much better campaigner than Boris Johnson. Like Farage, Miss Ferrari (with the green scarf) was a Donald Trump supporter and travelled to Washington for the new US President’s inauguration
Close: The alleged close friendship between Miss Ferrari and Mr Farage did not begin until several years after she began working for UKIP, the source claims. Mr Farage had an egg thrown at him this week while out campaigning with UKIP leader Paul Nuttall
Mr Bloom and Mr Farage first met the vivacious French woman when she worked as a waitress at their favourite Strasbourg watering hole, the Cornichon Masque restaurant in the heart of the historic city centre.
Miss Ferrari worked for two years for Mr Bloom before she became a member of the EU civil service working for UKIP in Brussels and in Strasbourg.
However the alleged close friendship between her and Mr Farage did not develop until several years after she began working for UKIP, the source claims.
Mr Bloom has refused to discuss the private lives of his former colleagues Mr Farage and Miss Ferrari.
He told MailOnline: ‘As my mother used to say, “I’m not going to discuss tittle tattle”.’
Miss Ferrari later stood for election for an odd-ball French Eurosceptic party – Debout Le Republique – but failed to get elected.
She now runs the right-wing Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE) think-tank which is based in London.
The Electoral Commission watchdog has launched an investigation into the alleged payment of a total of £400,000 in dodgy donations from the think-tank and an affiliated political alliance to UKIP, ahead of the General Election and the EU referendum.
Miss Ferrari is often part of the UKIP entourage that travels to the United States for speaking tours.
A friend of hers has told of his despair at her new living arrangements in London with Mr Farage, who already has two failed marriages behind him.
‘It is a terrible shame,’ the friend told MailOnline. ‘I always hoped that Laure would have found a nice bloke, settled down and started a family.’
A friend of Miss Ferrari spoke of his despair at her new living arrangements in London with Mr Farage, who has two failed marriages behind him. Pictured: Kirsten Farage in 2015, helping out at UKIP’s spring conference
Defiant: As rumours swirled about her husband, Kirsten Farage – the mother of his two young daughters – conceded that their marriage has been over for years. Pictured: Mr Farage with Kirsten at their local pub in Kent in 2015
Born into a simple hard-working family in the mountain town of Epinal, Miss Ferrari is the oldest of two daughters of the Ferrari family who trace their roots back to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.
Moving the family first to Nancy and then to Strasbourg her father ran a small haulage firm before retiring last year.
A committed Anglophile Miss Ferrari studied English at the University of Strasbourg and then spent two more years there doing a master’s degree in communications.
After her studies she took out a bank loan and opened a clothes shop called Urban Flavour.
However her business did not flourish and she was forced to work as a waitress at a friend’s restaurant – Cornichon Masque – to make ends meet.
Jules, the patron of the quaint little restaurant in the picturesque Place du Marche Gayot square, told MailOnline: ‘Laure used to work here. She was very popular with the clients. She was always talking with the men and sharing a joke, they loved her.’
A university friend has revealed how Miss Ferrari has been linked to Mr Farage for a long time.
Aslam Evrim told MailOnline: ‘What I know is that she has had ties to Nigel Farage professionally and politically for a long time now.
‘After Brexit she was very defensive of him [Farage].
A friend has described how the pair became almost inseparable in Brussels and Strasbourg.
After her studies she took out a bank loan and opened a clothes shop called Urban Flavour. However her business did not flourish and she was forced to work as a waitress at a friend’s restaurant – Cornichon Masque – to make ends meet which is where she met Mr Farage
A friend has described how she and Mr Farage became almost inseparable in Brussels and Strasbourg. Aslam Evrim told MailOnline: ‘What I know is that she has had ties to Nigel Farage professionally and politically for a long time now. ‘After Brexit she was very defensive of him’
‘Everyone says that I am Nigel Farage’s parliamentary assistant but this is not true,’ Miss Ferrari told EurActiv news website in 2014.
‘I was head of public relations.’
In June 2013 she teasingly tweeted a link to a newspaper article headlined; ‘Why do more women want to bed Nigel Farage over David Cameron?’
Miss Ferrari also fought a battle with Nigel Farage’s alleged ‘mistress’ Annabelle Fuller claiming French women were better lovers as they are ‘discreet and respectful’.
In an email rant she wrote about British women ‘with a very short dress, tarty-looking, drinking massively who vomits in the street and then leave with the first man to pick them up.’
The outburst was aimed at ‘jealous’ UKIP aide Annabelle Fuller who was publicly accused of sleeping with married former party leader.
An ex-colleague told The Sun: ‘Laure and Annabelle absolutely hated each other and made no effort to hide it. They actively sought to bring each other down in Nigel’s eyes.’
Miss Ferrari’s family have declined to comment on her relationship with Mr Farage.
Her sister June told Mailonline: ‘My sister’s love life is nothing to do with me.’
The university friend added: ‘She was a very fun person to spend time with, all laughs and smiles but you could have very deep and serious conversations with her as well.
Cheeky: In June 2013 Miss Ferrari teasingly tweeted a link to a newspaper article headlined: ‘Why do more women want to bed Nigel Farage over David Cameron?’
Joyful: The manager of a restaurant in Strasbourg where Miss Ferrari worked recalled how she was always a hit with the customers: ‘She was always talking with the men and sharing a joke, they loved her’
‘She used to wear street wear and listen to hip-hop all the time.
‘We used to joke that she looked like Britney Spears or Sporty Spice.’
Miss Ferrari continues to be close to Mr Bloom, who she has described as ‘one of my favourite people on earth’.
Mr Bloom was elected as UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber in 2004.
However UKIP withdrew the party whip from him in 2013 after he joking referred to women as ‘sluts’ at the party conference.
He continued to sit as an independent MEP until the end of his term in office in May 2014. He resigned from UKIP in October 2014.
Speaking from her family home in Kent, Mrs Farage declined to comment on the alleged confrontation with Mr Bloom.
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The party announced Mr Crowther had “overwhelmingly” been chosen by the national executive committee (NEC). He resigned as UKIP chairman in July 2016 but stood as a candidate in North Devon in the election.
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