Farage resigns to fight by-election...

Reform leader says Clacton voters should be ‘ultimate judge’ of his actions amid investigation into gifts



Nigel Farage has announced that he will trigger and then fight a by-election in his Clacton constituency in the biggest gamble of his political career.

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the Reform UK leader said he would resign to prompt a contest in which he intended to stand.

Mr Farage claimed his party was being persecuted and said it would be a “people versus the establishment” election.

He is being investigated by the parliamentary authorities over allegations that he did not correctly report a £5m gift from Christopher Harborne, a cryptocurrency billionaire, before the 2024 general election.

Mr Farage is also facing a second investigation over undeclared donations from George Cottrell, one of his closest associates, who was convicted of fraud in the US.

At Reform’s headquarters in central London, Mr Farage claimed that the sleaze investigation was being used as a political tool against him, and said voters in Clacton should be the ultimate judge of his actions.

In a statement that shocked Westminster, he said: “I’ve decided today I will resign as a Member of Parliament for Clacton, therefore forcing a by-election.

“The people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions. This will be a people versus the establishment by-election.

“It’s a chance to stick two fingers up at the entire establishment, to frankly tell them where to go. That is why I will be putting my name forward to stand in this by-election.

“I will fight to win. I will fight to continue the political revolution that Reform has ⁠started.”

Mr Farage announced the decision to call a by-election a day after The Telegraph revealed that the investigation into his handling of Mr Harborne’s donation would not report back until at least September.

It represents a significant gamble for the Reform leader, who won Clacton from the Tories two years ago with an 8,405 majority.

Mr Farage repeatedly insisted he had done nothing wrong in relation to Mr Harborne’s donation, but said the establishment was out to get him.

He said that he needed the £5m donation to pay for private security for the rest of his life because he was the most targeted politician in Britain.

“It seems to me that the establishment have now decided that they can’t beat us fairly so they’ve chosen to use foul means,” he said. “Standards are now being used as a political tool.”

In his statement, a visibly furious Mr Farage also accused the media of harassing his family, saying he had “never been angrier in my life”.

He said that the media turning up at his daughter’s home had been the “final straw” and raised the prospect of further press regulation by referencing the Leveson Inquiry, the planned second phase of which was never initiated.

Interesting that many of the opposing parties are not intending to fight this election.

I hope Farage has called this one correctly.