Nigel Farage latest: By-election turns to farce with Count Binface declared as Reform leader’s main rival

When Nigel Farage announced he was resigning as an MP, only to restand again in the same constituency, he claimed it was a move to take back control and stick two fingers up the establishment by proving voters were on his side.

But what he may not have considered is that the power to allow him to quit and trigger a by-election actually lies in the hands of Labour chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, has been given a pardon, David Lammy has announced.

The nightclub hostess went to the gallows in July 1955, three months after shooting dead David Blakely at The Magdala Pub in Hampstead, north London.

Her family have been calling for a pardon, saying evidence she was badly treated by her lover was never heard at her trial.

The King has accepted the government’s advice to grant Ms Ellis a conditional pardon, Mr Lammy told MPs.

David Lammy did not guarantee that rapists and paedophile would be exempt from the Government’s early release scheme.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir James Cleverly said Mr Lammy is a “good man”, adding: “He must know that it is wrong to release 5,000 serious criminals, including rapists, including paedophiles.”

The shadow housing secretary added: “If he will not change course, will he at least make this guarantee that not one rapist or paedophile will be released early later on this year?”

Mr Lammy, who is also the justice secretary, replied: “He has not proposed what they would do if they were in office.”

He added: “We’ve invested £700 million in probation. We are rolling out the largest programme of tagging in our history. We are forcing offenders to stay boxed in certain areas rather than where victims are…

“We are implementing income reduction orders and we are expanding chemical castration for sex offenders. None of it happened when they were in power.”

The Liberal Democrats have mocked Nigel Farage for his by-election “stunt”, urging Rachel Reeves to delay the poll until after an investigation into his conduct has been concluded.

The party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper told the Commons: “The honourable member for Clacton used to say ‘leave means leave’.

“But it seems his latest stunt is to leave this place, just so that he can return as a fully fledged member after not just one referendum on his behaviour but possibly two.

“So will the deputy prime minister join us in urging the chancellor to delay the honourable member for Clacton’s resignation until the investigation is complete, so the good people of Clacton have all the facts before they cast their votes?

“And failing that, will he support our Clacton clause, so that even once the honourable member ceases to be an MP, the investigations can continue.”

Deputy prime minister David Lammy responded: “Everyone can see that the Reform leader is just trying to distract from the fact that he’s up to his neck in sleaze.

“He has got serious questions to answer and he cant run away from them. Labour isn’t going to be part of this circus.”

Labour is pressing ahead with plans to cut the number of trials heard by a jury instead of a judge.

But the move has proved very controversial, with the campaign against it led by a currently suspended Labour MP Karl Turner.

At PMQs, James Cleverly, standing in for his party leader Kemi Badenoch, warned Andy Burnham: “If the soon-to-be prime minister does not want to be complicit in this failure, he should come out and condemn this plan, not just hint that he opposes it.

“Because if Labour cannot protect the citizens of this country, either domestically or internationally, then what on earth is the point of them?”

Amid a debate regarding jury trials with David Lammy, James Cleverly asks if Andy Burnham, the likely next prime minister, is in the Commons for PMQs.

It appears that the new MP for Makerfield is elsewhere.

Standing in for Starmer at PMQs, David Lammy, the justice secretary, has been challenged over Labour’s early release scheme.

He said that “every decision we have taken” has been based on public safety and he hit out at the Conservatives who he said had left the new Labour government with “just 83 empty cells” when it came to power.

David Lammy has opened PMQs by paying tribute to those killed in the 7/7 bombings, including his childhood best friend.

The deputy prime minister said: “This week we mark the awful anniversary of 7/7, a day when people travelling through London on a bright summer morning had their lives ended and changed forever, including my best friend James Adams.

“We remember all those affected by those terrible attacks and we will always stand against terrorism.”