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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says he is resigning as the Member of Parliament for Clacton and that he would run in the subsequent by-election, which he billed as a “people versus the establishment” vote.
“I’ve decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” he said. “It’s a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment”.
Reform has surged ahead in opinion polls since the Labour Party won a landslide election in 2024, but its leader has been mired in a number of controversies surrounding his finances in recent months.
He has been under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards since mid-May after not declaring a £5 million gift he received from British-Thai crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in 2024. Farage has said the gift was non-political and that he was under “no obligation” to declare it.
But he has been visibly rattled by questions over the funds and has offered changing explanations about the gift.
He initially said the money was intended for his personal security, before later saying it was a reward for having successfully campaigned for the leave campaign ahead of the UK’s divisive Brexit referendum. He has since called it an “unconditional gift” that he could spend “on Ferraris” if he wanted to.
The head of Reform came under renewed scrutiny over the weekend after an investigation by The Sunday Times revealed he had received funding from convicted criminal George Cottrell.
Confronted over the allegations by a reporter from Sky News as he returned from a trip to the US, where he joined the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations, Farage reacted angrily, warning the publication’s leadership would face “serious consequences”.
“You tell your bosses: you harass my family any more, there will be serious consequences, that’s what your organisation has done this morning, go away,” he said. Sky News said it had not contacted anyone from Farage’s family about the story.
In his announcement on Tuesday, Farage stressed that he had done “nothing wrong” and took aim at the mainstream media, which he said had launched a campaign to discredit him and hamper Reform.
It comes after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced he was stepping down from office in June. Starmer had been under increasing pressure following calamitous local election results for his Labour Party in May. He will remain in his role until Labour appoints a successor.
Former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is widely believed to be in line to take over. Burnham stormed to victory in the Makerfield by-election in June, winning around 55% of the vote and comfortably beating both the candidate for Reform and Rupert Lowe’s hard-right Restore Britain party.