Nigel Farage has announced that he will trigger a by-election by formally resigning as an MP, in an attempt to defy his political opponents amid a sleaze scandal. The Telegraph has more.
The Reform UK leader announced that he was standing down in his Clacton constituency on Tuesday, and will now stand in the ensuing contest following a string of damaging stories about financial support he has received.
Farage is being investigated by parliamentary authorities over allegations that he did not correctly report a £5 million gift from Christopher Harborne, a cryptocurrency billionaire, before the 2024 General Election.
He is also facing a second investigation over undeclared donations from George Cottrell, one of his closest associates and a convicted fraudster.
In a statement from Reform’s headquarters in Westminster, Farage claimed that the sleaze investigation was being used as a political tool against him.
He said that the money he had received from Harborne was being used to tackle the daily threats against him, claiming he is the “most physically and verbally attacked public figure of modern times”.
Announcing he would resign as an MP, he declared that the Clacton poll would be a “people versus the establishment by-election”.
Reform has led the national opinion polls for more than a year and remains the dominant party in Farage’s Clacton constituency. The circumstances of the by-election mean it will now attract significantly more attention than an ordinary ballot.
Farage said he had “never been angrier” over the treatment of his family by the media.
The Reform UK leader said he had “always done my absolute best” to protect the privacy of his relatives.
Farage accused the Editor of the Times of “directly threatening” his daughter’s security by publishing a photograph of her home.
He added: “Worse still, she now has broadcasters haranguing her. Sky News were one of them and when I questioned them on it, they wilfully and deliberately lied and said on their channel that they hadn’t contacted the family.
“Well let me be clear, I will not tolerate intimidation of my family. I will not tolerate the location of where they live being revealed. I will not tolerate any of my family being endangered because of what I choose to do in public life. So yes, you can ask, am I angry, well I’ve never been angrier in my life.”
Worth reading in full.
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Whichever way you look at it this does not augur well. Nothing short of full disclosure will kill off the money story and the longer it drags on the worse it will get for those of us who have pinned our hopes on Reform’s political priorities. Up in Scotland the SNP have taken a bad knock because of Murrell’s penchant for assorted kitchenware, watches, pens and hairdryers (what does a bald man need with two hairdryers I hear you ask) but the Party looks like it will survive because of the huge emotional commitment to Nationalism. Sad to say this factor doesn’t seem to apply to Reform.
The flak is heaviest when you’re over the target.
Dominic Cummings outlined the dirty tricks that were likely some time ago.
Suppose the writ for the by-election is blocked in the Commons?
Don’t forget “comedian” Jo Brand and her happy jest that yet another “milk shake” thrower should have used battery acid.
How the Uniparty and their stooges laughed!
No more security for Nigel. No holding Jo to account.
I don’t quite get what Farage wants to achieve by doing this?
Showing that he still has the vote of Clacton?
Stopping the investigation for a while?
Anything I am missing?
So if he wins, what changes?
If he loses to Count Binface…
I cannot see how calling this election will help the people of Clacton or the UK. All political games and I have had enough of it.
He is showing up all the other parties as having the same policies and objectives. So you either vote RUK to save the Country or you vote Uniparty to hasten the end of that Country.
Given the position he finds himself in, it’s a very interesting strategic move I think… certainly ruffled some feathers already… restore, libdems and tories have said much more than they wanted to by not contesting – demonstrates a total lack of belief in their own policies to me…
I don’t quite know what he hopes to achieve. All it will do is delay the parliamentary investigation until he gets back after the bi-election. So what? If he is up to his eyes in sleaze, end of Reform. If not, then the possibility of government remains. All he is doing is delaying the inevitable. On Harrold Wilson’s famous phrase, ‘A week is a long time in politics,’ then 2029 to the next general election is a World away and his opponents will have many more goes at bringing him down before then.
I presume as he will no longer be an MP it will reset the clock and as a new MP his finances would only be a matter for the run up to his re election now.
Twice recently I have seen a message flash up when I posted a comment “Nonce is not valid”. I do not use that word and it had not been inserted by spell check.
Does anyone else see this. Have I or DS been hacked.
MODERATOR HERE
Not that I’m aware of
No hacking, I think it indicates some glitch in checking your identity or something similar. I have had it before.
Yes. Frequently.
No, it’s a random value used to salt a cryptographic connection for security reasons, it’s actually a contraction of ‘number once’ or n-once but the hyphen is often removed. See here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_nonce
It’s not something to be concerned about. It has no connection to the word used to described a paedophile.
I’m getting the word…
According to reports the LibDems are consulting in Parliament to delay the by-election. How typical of a party formally called The Liberal Democrats. I do wonder what strategic view the Labour benches will take.
By convention I understand the holding party is allowed to move a resolution for the by-election. If the Uniparty wants to stop it they will have to decide when will suit them best. I can’t think of any date that will suit them.
An early election (say, in August) would overlap with Burnham’s coronation. A by-election after the conference season takes us to October when a Burnham (Miliband?) budget of huge tax rises will be due. Neither of those seems attractive to Labour.
It appears Rupert Lowe has chickened out of this by-election but repeats his master’s voice about Nigel Farage’s receipt of a private gift before he became an MP. The Tories will be creamed in Clacton-Frinton and all other parties can expect to lose their deposits. Maybe the Uniparty will decide to avoid a contest?
I heard the Tories had just recently begun activities in the constituency for the first time since the General Election. Maybe they thought they had a stitch-up in place… Read more »
Libdems shouldn’t be able to influence this at all – they’ve decided not to stand I hear?…
It appears that the family of Mr Farage and indeed the man himself enjoy no protection from the Data Protection Act. Can anyone explain this? The ‘scandal’ appears to be a nothing burger and Reform voters generally have a good nose for baseless smears.
It doesn’t change my voting intentions, because I see Uniparty, and Media as one fascist entity. What the BBC seem to like calling ‘sleaze’ is nothing. Mind you, we forced a Prime Minister to resign over eating a piece of cake. Vital never to trust these b’stards one inch.
Likewise Richard Tice and his business, it seems. They suspect wrongful release of innocent information which the MSM have distorted to pretend there was a problem.
A finger has been pointed at the NCA.
This is going to be interesting, for a variety of reasons… Farage won in ‘24, of course, with 46% of a 58% turnout. CON came a distant second with 27% and then LAB, LIB and GRN who amassed around 25% between them.
Its feasible, with the tactical voting that’s all the rage these days that LAB, LIB and GRN might lend their votes to CON, given their leader’s declaration she would prefer a LAB government to a REF one…
Farage will need to throw everything he and the party have at this to get the result he clearly hopes for.
Con not standing so neither is their subsidiary Restore. I guess LibDems can’t afford the costs.
I’d like to think that this will be a way of defusing all the allegations. My fear is that Labour, the Conservatives and the “Blob” in general will feel so threatened by Reform under Nigel’s leadership that they will persist with a series of Putinesque dirty tricks until such time as the threat is neutralised.
Are Putinesque dirty tricks really a match for Britishesque dirty tricks?
If you consider Litvinenko and Salisbury, yes they are.
Perhaps you have swallowed the official narrative.
And what is your take on those two incidents?
The establishment trying to destroy someone it doesn’t like or considers a threat. Gosh, never seen that before.
Financial scandal or sexual harrassment or rape “allegations” or “anti-semitism”. They find a way.
Even if it doesn’t completely take them down, it provides something to hang on them for the rest of their careers. “So and so who in 2026 faced allegations of [fill the blank]”
I’ve just read the rules (according to https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/by-elections/)
And then there is the convention that there is no by-election during Party conferences. There was some speculation on the been PM programme that no main party would stand at all, resulting in him being back in and chucked out again after the inquiries that are ongoing, albeit suspended during the proposed by-election.
convention – not a rule
Now that would give a great message to the rest of the country:
Not only will we not debate the issues that matter to you, we won’t even stand up for what we believe in.
No conceivable reason why Farage would be “chucked out” as you put it.
Exactly the right course of action and one which reflects great credit on the man himself, in stark contrast to many of the quite dreadful politicians within the labour party.
The whole ‘Crypto Cotters’ association has always looked grubby at best, ‘Cotters’ resident in Montenegro, home of mountebanks and worse laundering dodgy money via crypto currency.
But Mr Farage’s constituents are by far and away the best people to pass judgement; a shot in the arm for democracy, the least worst system of government.
Yes, and provided he wins, he will have a stick to beat Burnham with: “I needed a mandate to carry on, so I got one… where is your mandate, Mr Burnham?”
It is an enquiry into a non-issue. During his statement today Nigel read the precise terms of the rules about gifts and the one he received was not relevant.
What is relevant is the behaviour of the press and media towards =his children and the failure of the authorities to protect him in the face of frequent attacks and very frequent threats.
Although it is the convention that the party whose seat has been vacated gets top chose the date of the by-election I wonder if the Uniparty will defer it for months. It is also a convention not to hold elections during conference season.
It is tricky for them. Nigel is almost certain to win so if the election is held in the next 2 months Reform will go into Conference season tail up. If they defer until after the conferences Burnham will have a big loss thrown at him soon after taking over from TTK.
Well shiver me timbers! Restore, LibDems and Tories wont contest the by-election. Tories’ recent foray onto the streets of Clacton and Frinton will have told them just how badly they would do.
I still wonder if Uniparty will try to delay the by-election.
Tories’ share of the vote dropped 44% (forty four percent even though their candidate was a well known and likeable local) LibDems lost their deposit last time but Labour’s Jovan Owusu-Nepaul amazingly got 16%.
If there’s no election, he won’t be able to use the campaign to set out Reform policies, as well as defending his record. I’m sure that’s part of the reason.
Well, he’s been good value for the Clacton constituents, hasn’t he? We’re all paying something for by-elections, after all.
Farage says Reform will cover the costs..
Genius move.
He has actually. But unlike you, I suspect, I live in Nigel’s constituency.
Its Brexit fear mongering all over again. The establishment and the bought secretaries of the MSM have pushed and pushed their two Party narrrative, all wanting the comfortable status quo for them to remain. Meanwhile the British people can go hang, as they face the Establishments plagues of Net Zero, taking their Livelihoods and making them poorer through Conservative and Labour Policies, The running down of our defences to pop gun and Pike staff levels, meanwhile flooding the country with Alien young men from a culture that means us harm, and is actively doing so, whilst we the tax payer fund their invasions.
The Censorship, the two tier Policing and justice whereby again the British are treated as the lowest caste in society. All caused by the two party system that the Lanyard, the skivers, and the MSM feed off.
Well just as in Brexit, they have is my belief pushed the British too far in their treatment of Nigel Farage. Look at Labour rife with corruption from the woman who was a convicted thief.fraudster who is now his advisor, Rayner, that woman who was supposed to be the anti corruption minister, Starmer himself and his donations etc from Ali,… Read more »
The Tories are also to blame. Consolidating regime gains rather than developing a real agenda to benefit Britain and its people. Then to add insult to injury they put an anchor baby in charge. Farage is milquetoast and the regime cannot even accommodate minor challenges to their machinations represented by him.
I think it is a massive tactical error by Reform. It will end up as Nigel v Count Binface rather than Nigel v the establishment. The Tories will probably overtake Reform in the polls; Reform down 3 or 4 % and Tories up the same. Farage should have used yesterday to layout his defence to the complaints made to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.
This certainly seems to have backfired. Did he assume any parliamentary inquiry would be rigged against him? Otherwise I can’t see why he wouldn’t use that as a public forum in which to clear his name. If his resignation isn’t accepted, that might be the only option anyway.
I’ll have what your drinking. All the Uni-parties were gonna lose their deposits and they knew it. They tried this with President Trump and he got MORE votes.