DOUGLAS Carswell has admitted to being paid in gold for adverts on his personal website.

The Clacton MP was reported to have been receiving payments in gold nuggets in an article about political advertising for Campaign magazine.

“Every month instead of sending him a wire transfer, we are sending him a gold nugget,” wrote Jaq Singh.

Jag, the founder of political advertising agency MessageSpace, also said: “The quirk about Douglas is that because he is such a fiscally responsible person, he wants payment in gold.”

The PR firm provides advertising to most major political blogs, including those of individual politicians like Mr Carswell, who writes the blog Talk Carswell.Com.

The MP was unavailable for comment when we tried to contact him about this, but he recently told the Total Politics website it all stemmed from a joke.

“I used to work in fund management, this was not a serious investment or monetisation strategy, it was a tongue-in-cheek joke,” he said.

“I think he initially offered to pay me with a laptop or something. I said actually when the equivalent amount of money to a half gold sovereign has been reached, why don’t you given me a half gold sovereign.

“It was more for comic entertainment value, but I do recall I’ve been given a half gold sovereign by MessageSpace,” he also told Total Politics.