Farage says he is resigning but will stand in ‘people v establishment’ byelection – UK politics live | Politics

This is what Keir Starmer has said about Nigel Farage resigning so he can fight a byelecton in Clacton.

This is a desperate stunt from Nigel Farage.

It’s obvious why he is doing it. He is up to his neck in sleaze.

Politics should be about improving the lives of millions of people, not about personal gain, not about hiding dodgy donations, and I think the public will see this for exactly what it is.

Kemi Badenoch has said that Nigel Farage’s decision to trigger a byelection shows he is having a “hissy fit”.

She also refused to say whether the Conservatives would definitely put up a candidate. against him – implying she is more focused on the recall byelection she expects to be held in Clacton when the inquiry into Farage not declaring donations wraps up.

Speaking at the Politico Live event, Badenocc said:

What I’m focused on right now, and I’ve set my team on it, is how to make sure that we avoid wasting taxpayers’ money with two byelections, and we’re exploring every avenue, so until that’s decided I’m not saying anything about what’s happening in Clacton.

There should not be a byelection when the standards committee has not ruled, and the fact is, this doesn’t even stop the ruling. It doesn’t stop the ruling, it just pauses it.

Perhaps at best it’s still going to happen, so he can run as much as he likes from the investigation, he cannot hide, and the people of Clacton, in my view, are going to take a pretty dim view of their MP wasting everybody’s time and money just because he’s having a hissy fit.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has said that Nigel Farage is trying to “distract from the huge troubles he is currently in” by triggering a byelection.

She told reporters:

He’s obviously trying to distract from the huge troubles that he is currently in around not declaring a whole range of donations and associations. He’s trying to distract from that, and we mustn’t let him.

Asked if Labour would put up a candidate in Clacton, she said:

Let’s see what happens in terms of a byelection, but Labour would tend to stand candidates in byelections.

Nigel Farage has always been a master of political theatre. As people speculated about his future in recent days, until late this morning no one was predicting that he would subject himself to a self-inflicted byelection.

As a move, this certainly shows that he has been able to regain the initiative.

But whether this will allow Reform UK to regain momentum in the polls (it has been flatlining, or going down slightly, for months), and whether it will allow Farage to bury the sleaze allegations that have been dogging him, are entirely different matters. ‘Probably not’ may be the best answer for now.

Here are some questions the announcement raises.

When will the byelecton take place?

In theory it could be in August, but Sky News is reporting early September. As the party that holds the seat, Reform UK gets to choose.

Will other parties stand against him?

Probably. The main parties did not put up candidates against David Davis when he stood down so he could fight his own seat in what was seen by many as a pointless byelection in 2008. But it would be hard to imagine parties like Labour or the Lib Dems giving Farage a free run in the light of what they saw about how awful his politics are.

In 1997, when Neil Hamilton stood for re-election after being exposed for his involvement in the cash-for-questions scandal, all the rival parties stood down at the general election so Martin Bell, the BBC foreign correspondent, could stand against him as an anti-sleaze candidate.

In theory, that could happen again in Clacton. As Rob Hutton from the Critic points out on Bluesky, the argument is there to be made.

Calling a by-election over the sovereign right of every MP to take secret gifts from a convicted criminal. What a time to be alive.

But there is no obvious Martin Bell candidate available, and no evidence that the other parties would stand aside even if one were to emerge.

Could Farage lose?

In theory, yes, but it is hard to imagine that at this point. Here is the Wikipedia table with the results from 2024.

The main opposition parties will try to frame this as a sleaze election – but they might be running four separate anti-sleaze candidates, which could make it hard for this framing to take off.

In recent byelections the anti-Reform tactical vote has been strong. But in Clacton the rightwing, Reform, or Reform-leaning vote, is so strong that it is hard to see the anti-Reform vote being dominant.

Farage is framing the byelection as the people versus the establishment. (See 2.27pm.)

But, while Reform UK has been very successful at mobilising populist anger over issues like immigration, there is no evidence that members of the public are particularly outraged by the conduct of the parliamentary commissioner for standards. On a rainy day, no one is going to make the effort to go to the polls just to stick it to Daniel Greenberg, or to defend Farage’s right to trouser £5m from a billionaire.

We could end up with a byelection viewed by voters with a shrug. When David Davis fought his byelection in 2008, he claimed he was doing so to make an emphatic point about Labour’s plans for pre-trial detention. In the event, Davis won comfortably, but the vote revealed little about public thinking on this issue, and it had almost no impact on the broader political debate.

How will this affect Andy Burnham?

A Clacton byelection will be unwelcome for Burnham because it will distract attention at a time when he is trying to make a good impression in his first 100 days in office. But it won’t be that much of a distraction. A new PM is still far bigger story.

How will this affect Kemi Badenoch?

Clacton used to be a very safe Tory seat. If Farage wins again easily, that will show that the Conservative party’s recovery still has a long way to go.

Will Farage face a challenge from Restore Britain?

Restore Britain is the party set up by Rupert Lowe, who was elected as a Reform UK MP in 2024 but who then fell out with Farage. On immigration and crime, it is even more rightwing than Farage’s party.

Lowe views himself as a serious rival to Farage. But it is hard to imagine him beating Farage in Clacton, and so it would be surprising if he were to stand himself. He says his party will make an announcement later today.

How will this affect the investigation into Farage?

Farage is clearly hoping that, by fighting and winning a byelection, he can somehow put to bed the donations controversy that has kiboshed his campaigning in recent weeks.

But it won’t.

For a start, during the campaign Farage will have to give interviews and that means he will continue to face questions about the donations from Christopher Harborne and George Cottrell, what he has done with the money, who has funded his home, and why he thinks no rules have been broken etc etc.

And, if he wins, the Commons investigation just resumes. This is from Ruth Fox from the Hansard Society.

Amid all the speculation about Nigel Farage’s 2pm statement, it’s worth noting paragraph 40 of the Procedural Protocol to the MPs’ Code of Conduct.

If he announces he’s resigning and seeking a by-election, that would not automatically end the investigation into whether he breached the Code in the 12 months before becoming an MP in 2024.

The investigation would be suspended while he was no longer an MP. If he won the by-election, it would resume. If he lost, it could still be resumed. The outcome of the by-election result might of course affect the resulting rectification measure or sanction that can be proposed.

It is quite possible that Farage could win a byelection only to face another recall byelection a few months later, if the inquiry into the donations resulted in a recommendation that he should be suspended from the Commons for more than 10 days for breaching parliamentary rules. Given that there is no precedent for an MP failing to declare a donation of £5m in modern times, that is not an implausible outcome.

The Commons standards committee might also take the view that triggering a byelection to try to sidestep the disciplinary process should be seen as an aggravating factor, meriting a tougher sentence.

So, by the end of the year, we could be back where we are today.

Nigel Farage says Reform UK has offered to pay for the cost of the Clacton byelection.

I have spoken to the CEO of Tendring District Council. Reform has offered to cover the cost of the by-election.

I will be writing to Rachel Reeves later today with the same message.

Given that we asked for this by-election in the first place, it’s only right that we pay for it.

Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has posted this on social media, indicating that his party will be fighting the Clacton byelection on a people versus the establishment platform – depicting Nigel Farage as the establishment candidate.

Clacton has the chance to show Farage the door.

People Vs the Establishment.

His whole political project is about protecting the wealth and power of the establishment.

In an interview with Times Radio, Mothin Ali, the co-deputy leader of the Greens, said:

We stand in every election. That’s what the Green party does.

We’ll make a strategic decision as to how we stand in this election.

By “how we stand”, he means whether the party fights all-out in the hope of winning – or whether it runs a more low-key campaign.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has issued this statement about Nigel Farage’s decision to trigger a byelection.

Nigel Farage has spent his whole life dodging responsibility for his actions. This new stunt is his latest attempt to escape consequences for his biggest grift. We won’t let him.

I have updated most of the earlier posts covering Nigel Farage’s speech so they now include direct quotes. You may need to refresh the page to get all the updates to appear.

Farage says he is going to fight a byelection in Clacton.

It will be a “people versus the establishment” byelection, he says.

UPDATE: Farage said:

The issue with my daughter was the final straw. Enough is enough. And I thought over the weekend, what shall I do? I could go out and try and make some real big money. I could go to the USA, where I’ve got plenty of offers. And then I thought, why should I be judged today, or in history in the future, by Sky News and their ilk?

Why should they be the people that decide my fate? When, as I repeat, I have done nothing wrong.

I thought about it hard and I have decided today I will resign as a member of parliament for Clacton-on-Sea, thereby forcing a byelection, which should happen, I hope, in short order.

Now I’ve decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions. This will be a people versus the establishment byelection. It’s a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire Establishment to frankly tell them where to go, and that is why I will be putting my name forward to stand in this byelection.

I will fight to win. I will fight to continue the political revolution that Reform has started, and I would say this to you, the voters of Clacton, if I win, you win, because if I lose, they win, and we will never with the two old parties get the type of fundamental change that we need to fix broken Britain.

Farage claims one of the recent stories about him was the result of an illegal hack.

He says immigration remains a problem.

In London men are afraid to wear watches, and women do not wear their jewellery.

Farage accuses Labour of changing rules to benefit them electorally.

And now Labour is “coming for our money”, he says.

He is referring to the restrictions on donations from people living abroad.

Labour “keep changing the rules again and again just to stop Reform”.

It is “like living in a communist country”.

Farage says commentators say he is angry.

He says last week the Times published a picture of where his daughter lives.

He claims that, by doing that, the editor of the Times (Tony Gallagher) has directly threatened her security.

He says his daughter is now facing harassment from the media.

He says he will not tolerate his family facing treatment like that.

Am I angry? I’ve never been angrier in my life.

UPDATE: Farage said:

For some reason, last week the editor of the Times newspaper decided to publish a picture of where my daughter lives.

There is no public interest in my daughter whatsoever. She is not involved in current affairs, doesn’t seek to be involved in current affairs, and has never been used by me once at any point in my political career.

No photographs on election addresses or anything like that, I’ve always done my absolute best to protect the privacy and safety of my family.

By publishing that photograph, the editor of The Times has directly threatened her security … She now has broadcasters haranguing her.

Sky News were one of them, and when I questioned them on it, they willfully 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.

Farage says he got security funding when he became an MP.

But 70% of that was later withdrawn, he says.

He says he is grateful to Christopher Harborne because that will fund his security.