Nigel Farage has announced he is resigning as the MP for Clacton to force a by-election, in which he will stand to ‘stick two fingers up to the entire establishment’.
The Reform UK leader said earlier today he would be making a statement on his ‘political future’, leading to feverish speculation in Westminster and beyond.
In a video posted on social media, he said: ‘I’ve thought about it hard, and I’ve decided today I will resign as a member of parliament for Clacton-on-Sea, thereby forcing a by-election which should happen, I think, in short order.’
The election is likely to be an early electoral test for presumptive next Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who is set to enter No 10 as Sir Keir Starmer’s replacement on July 20.
Farage is being investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner over allegations he did not properly declare a ‘gift’ of £5 million from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in January 2024.
In recent weeks, he has also faced questions about his five properties around England and his links to criminal aristocrat George Cottrell.
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Writing on X, Farage said: ‘I will make a statement on my future in public life at 2pm.’
It comes after he angrily confronted a journalist from Sky News at an airport, accusing the broadcaster of harassing his family.
After being asked whether it was a ‘mistake to accept the gifts’, Farage replied: ‘Do you not hear me? You have broken all the rules, Leveson, and everything else.’
Sky News denies the allegation, saying it has not contacted anyone from Farage’s family about the story.
Further pressure came this morning from the Labour Party, which asked the Electoral Commission to investigate whether Farage broke electoral law by failing to declare gifts from Cottrell.
A Sunday Times investigation published on Sunday said Cottrell personally hired people to build up Farage’s social media prescence, which was then used to champion Reform UK.
Labour chair Anna Turley said it was ‘abundantly clear’ that the Reform leader ‘may have not only broken parliamentary rules, he may have broken the law’.
She added: ‘Farage can’t brazenly brush this off as being “none of your business” any longer.
‘He needs to own his self-inflicted scandal and prove he’s not been secretly breaking the rules and taking the British public for fools.’
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