Farage Resigns (But Not Really)

Irrespective of what you might think of him, Nigel Farage has achieved a lot over the last few years.He's transformed Reform UK from a right -wing protest party to a party that's leading in the national polls and has, while doing so, seemingly broken the two -party system.As a result of this, Farage has overseen some impressive victories at the polls.In early May, Farage gained more councillors and councils than any other party at the local elections, and he oversaw his party becoming the joint second largest party in the Scottish Parliament.These are serious achievements, especially for a party that was only ostensibly founded back in 2018.However, despite this, Farage's political fortunes may actually be on the turn.

They've lost a number of key by -elections by fairly large margins in areas that reform should have performed well in.Even on its own, this contributed to a loss of momentum for reform and raised questions about their ability to actually meet expectations.However, things only seem to have gotten worse since.two particularly damaging stories about Farage's finances have undermined Farage and have caused a flurry of negative headlines.It became clear both to journalists and seemingly Farage himself that these scandals could result in a by -election in Clacton.It seems that, in an attempt to get around this, Farage has resigned as an MP to trigger a by -election himself.

So in this video we'll explain the controversy surrounding the reform leader at the moment, why Farage triggered the by -election, and whether this will put an end to Farage's current problems.The UK constitution is, by design, flexible.At times, this flexibility has its advantages.However, there is a growing risk that populist parties exploit this flexibility.In the latest issue of Our Magazine Too Long, we make the case that the UK's constitution needs updating if it is to prevent this.That's just one of 80 pages in the magazine.

Because there's more in Too LongNow, we should really start by outlining in a little more detail the difficulties facing reform.As we explained in the intro, one of the biggest problems at the moment is their loss of momentum, largely as a result of losing by -elections that they probably should have won, or at least performed better in.The first of these was the Caerphilly by -election for the Senedd, or Welsh Parliament, which took place in October last year.Senedd polling at the time demonstrated that Reform and Plaid Cymru were neck and neck, and political commentators expected the election to be a tight race between the two parties.In the end, though, Plaid secured 47 % of the vote and Reform secured only 36%.

Then, a few months later in February, the resignation of Andrew Gwynne triggered the Gorton and Denton by -election.In the end, the Greens won the by -election with 41 % of the vote.Reform secured only 29%, a significant underperformance of the polls.Then, in May, Josh Simons resigned his seat in Parliament in order to create a pathway for Andy Burnham to run for Parliament and challenge Keir Starmer for the leadership of the Labour Party.While Simons' constituency of Makefield had been considered a Labour stronghold, there were actually signs that reform could rival Labour in the seat.Mere weeks before the by -election took place, Reform UK won all eight wards in the constituency in the council elections.

In the end, Reform managed to win only 35 % of the vote, 20 points behind Labour.None of these were good results for Reform, and taken together they show that Reform is already struggling in by -elections, despite national polling suggesting they're still ahead of Labour and the Tories.However, making matters even worse are two finance scandals.The first relates to a £5m gift Farage received from Thai -based investor Christopher Harbourn.The payment was reportedly made in early 2024, before Farage had announced that he would be returning to British politics.Initially, he claimed the payment was to fund his security.

But Farage changed his story, claiming that it was an unconditional gift and that he was free to spend it on whatever he liked, before then claiming that it was given to him as a reward for his campaign for Brexit.Now, as Farage was elected as an MP in the general election in July 2024, he was required to declare any financial interest from the previous 12 months.Although it's worth pointing out that the rules say that purely personal gifts or benefits from family or commercial loans don't have to be registered.This is why getting to the bottom of exactly what the £5m payment was given to him for is so important.As such, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner has launched an investigation into this payment.As part of the investigation, they will assess both the possible motive of the giver and the use to which the gift is to be put.

And if it's found that Farage did break the rules by not declaring the payment, then they can require him to make a written or verbal apology, or possibly even suspend him.We'll get on to this a little later.The second Farage scandal is quite similar, but instead relates to the relationship between Farage and British financer George Cottrell.Cottrell has a long history of working with Farage, with him by the reform leader's side throughout the biggest moments of his career, including winning the 2016 EU referendum.Cottrell, though, isn't the most squeaky clean character in politics.A month after the referendum, Cottrell was caught agreeing to launder money for undercover agents posing as drug traffickers in the US.

He eventually accepted a plea deal and served eight months in prison.Despite this, Farage has maintained a working relationship with him, and the Sunday Times reported that Cottrell supplied security and social media staff to Farage in the year before he became an MP.Farage claimed that Cottrell's support was only provided in a personal capacity, and therefore he didn't need to declare this.While a Parliamentary Standards Commissioner investigation has not yet been announced, it's possibleFarage is also investigated for this too.So, with a Parliamentary Standards Commissioner already investigating Farage, and with a further investigation potentially on the cards, it's impossible, likely even, that Farage would face a by -election in Clacton.

It's worth going through exactly how this could have happened.First off, the Commissioner will publish a report on Farage, in which he will determine whether he thinks Farage broke the rules.The report will then go to the Parliamentary Committee on Standards, who will decide whether they agree with the Commissioner.If they agree that Farage broke the rules, then the Committee will determine a sanction, which, as we explained earlier, could include a suspension.If the suspension is for more than 10 days, then a recall petition is triggered.And if more than 10 % of constituents in Clacton, Farage's constituency, sign it, then a by -election is triggered.

Now, as of Tuesday morning, this looked like the most likely course of events.A by -election triggered nominally by the Standards Committee.It seems, though, that Farage has attempted to take matters into his own hands.On Tuesday afternoon, Farage gave a speech in which he railed against the media for attacking him on his finances and defended himself by arguing he needed the money to fund his own security.He then announced that he would be resigning as an MP in order to trigger a by -election in Clacton, seemingly as a way of bypassing the Standards Committee.

No, I've decided that 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 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 by -election.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.Britain.

Now, while he didn't say it explicitly, it does seem that Farage is assuming that if he wins the by -election, this will put matters to bed.The people of Clacton had judged him and decided that even despite both the Harborne and Cottrell scandal, they still wanted him as their MP.It will also rebuild some much -needed momentum for reform, especially after their recent by -election losses.However, the issue here is that the Standards Committee is clear that while they suspend investigations when the member otherwise ceases to be a member, which will be true for Farage in the by -election campaign, if the member is re -elected, the investigation will continue.This opens the door, then, to a potential second Clacton by -election later in the year, if the privileged commissioner and committee suspend Farage for more than 10 days, and the subsequent recall petition garners the support of 10 % of Clacton constituents.It's looking, then, like it could be a really busy year for those living in Clacton.

This is an incredibly nuanced story, though, with plenty of outlets reporting on it, and even now we can see that there were 92 sources reporting on it.Well, that's a problem we face when making these videos too, and luckily that's where this week's sponsor, Ground News, comes in.For this story in particular, most of the sources reporting come from the left.If we dig deeper into how the story is being framed, you can quickly see the contrast in how the story is being reported across the political spectrum.Some sources on the left emphasize the people bankrolling Farage, while some right -leaning sources shift their attention to the vagueness of Farage's declared benefit.We're only able to get this level of deep analysis and transparency in reporting because of Ground News, who we've been partnered with since 2023.

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