If it was a relatively low-key week in Irish politics, it was anything but quiet in Westminster. Controversy engulfed Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and he resigned as an MP, sparking a byelection.
It came amid an investigation by the UK’s parliamentary standards commissioner over an undeclared £5 million (€5.8 million) “gift” from cryptocurrency entrepreneur Christopher Harborne.
In a televised address, Farage also suggested he expected to face an investigation over undeclared donations from convicted fraudster George Cottrell, which were revealed at the weekend.
Farage insists he did nothing wrong and the donations in the year before his election in 2024 were for “personal” reasons and not related to politics.
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As our London Correspondent Mark Paul reported, Farage’s main political rivals have said they will boycott the upcoming byelection in his Clacton constituency caused by the resignation.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused Farage of having a “hissy fit” by calling a premature “fake byelection” to distract from the ongoing investigation into his affairs.
Restore Britain, led by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, said it would also wait for a later byelection, while Labour said it wouldn’t “indulge” the vote called for by Farage.
If the investigation into Farage’s donations finds against him and suspends him for more than 10 days, a recall petition could be instigated at that point.
That could force a fresh byelection, raising the prospect of the people of Farage’s constituency being asked to vote twice in just a few months.
With the main parties not contesting, Farage’s main rival looks set to be a comedy candidate.
Count Binface has previously contested elections in the constituencies of other high-profile UK politicians. Most recently Binface got 95 votes in the Makerfield byelection that saw Andy Burnham take the seat for Labour, as the Greater Manchester mayor sought to oust Keir Starmer as party leader and prime minister.
Binface’s policies include building at least one affordable house and restoring the price of a 99 Flake ice cream to 99p – a potential vote winner in seaside town Clacton.
There has been glee among Farage’s more mainstream political opponents that he is contesting the election against the intergalactic space warrior with a bin for a head.
Social media is alight with memes and the many media interviews given by Binface.
Rob Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester, said “never say never” about Binface winning the election outright, though he said there was likely a “ceiling on the appeal of novelty candidates”.
On the more serious side of things, Burnham looks a step closer to getting the keys to 10 Downing Street.
He is almost guaranteed to be the next prime minister of the United Kingdom after 322 Labour MPs nominated him to take over from Starmer.
Meanwhile, at home
Perhaps the big set piece this week was Sinn Féin’s bid to ramp up preparations for a united Ireland with legislation. Sinn Féin’s Planning for Constitutional Change Bill – had it passed – would have obliged the Government to draft and publish a Green Paper on unification within 18 months.
The Green Paper would then inform an all-island Citizens’ Assembly, which would be set up to map out the costs, logistics and other practicalities of Irish unification.
It was defeated in a Dáil vote on Wednesday evening.
As Ellen Coyne and Marie O’Halloran report, during the debate on the legislation the previous day, Taoiseach Micheál Martin rejected the Sinn Féin Bill, claiming it would “recommit us to an approach which has failed repeatedly over the past 100 years”.
Martin said the legislation would “involve an empty gesture” and “do little to achieve its objective”.
“Most importantly it would distract from urgent work which is essential before any honest and constructive debate about our constitutional future can be held.”
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald had introduced the Bill, which she described as “historic”, saying it would “put the work of uniting Ireland at the very heart of Government and the Oireachtas”.
A united Ireland is the “big idea for our future”, McDonald said. “We need to recognise that a united Ireland is the greatest opportunity of our generation.”
The Taoiseach denounced the 18-month deadline to set out a Green Paper as “obviously not credible” and believed a Citizens’ Assembly was not the “appropriate mechanism” to advance the “enormous work” of securing unity.
Separately, it is week two of Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union. This week kicked off with a meeting of employment and social affairs ministers in Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary’s Mayo constituency. Political Editor Pat Leahy went along and filed this report on how a Ballina secondary school was thrust into the bureaucratic spotlight.
More awkwardly for Ireland, Jack Power and Conor Gallagher reported on Wednesday that the European Parliament has passed a non-binding motion calling for sanctions to ban the future sale of alumina to Russia, a move that would seriously curtail Aughinish Alumina’s business.
Earlier this year an investigation by The Irish Times detailed how the Co Limerick industrial plant was exporting alumina to smelters in Russia, which is then sold to a company that supplies aluminium to Russian arms manufacturers.
A large majority of MEPs supported the resolution in a vote in Strasbourg on Wednesday, a symbolic gesture that will increase the political pressure on the European Commission, and the Government, to take action to curb the significant exports from Aughinish Alumina to Russia.
Elsewhere, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke told the Dáil that he will have his department’s report into whether Aughinish Alumina products are ending up in Russian military equipment “within the next 10 days”.
Harry McGee has an analysis on the politics of hare coursing as the latest attempt to ban the practice was heavily defeated in the Dáil this week.
Miriam Lord’s account of the Dáil debate includes how Government TDs – some of whom are opposed to hare coursing – did not have a free vote on the matter. She wrote that the rule in the Government parties, as Taoiseach Micheál Martin pointed out, is that votes of conscience are only allowed “in respect of human life issues” and, as Lord put it – animal life issues are a different kettle of blood sport.
