Nigel Farage’s main political rivals have said they will boycott the “fake” byelection that the Reform UK leader has called for his parliamentary seat in Clacton.
Labour, Reform’s populist right rival Restore Britain, and the Tories who previously held Clacton all suggested they would instead contest a future byelection that could be forced if parliamentary investigators find against Farage in a donations row.
Farage is under investigation by the UK’s parliamentary standards commissioner over an undeclared £5 million “gift” from cryptocurrency entrepreneur Christopher Harborne.
In a televised address on Tuesday, Farage also suggested he expected to face an investigation over undeclared donations from convicted fraudster, George Cottrell, which were revealed at the weekend.
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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.
He has been under intense political pressure since the revelations emerged. On Tuesday, he launched a fightback by announcing he would quit as an MP to stand in a subsequent byelection in a “people versus the establishment” vote.
In his angry address from Reform’s London headquarters, he railed against Britain’s media and rival political parties and accused them of ganging up on him in a “pile on”.
“Why should I be judged by Sky News and their ilk?” he said, adding that he would “let the people of Clacton be the judges” of his behaviour.
Farage also accused journalists of harassing his family, which he said was the “final straw”.
“Am I angry? I’m angrier than I have ever been in my life,” said Farage, who also confirmed he had considered quitting British politics.
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Under UK parliamentary rules, the writ for the byelection is moved by the party that last won the seat, giving Reform UK broad control over the date of the vote unless other parties try to amend the writ in the House of Commons. It is expected to take place in August or, more likely, September.
However, 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.
“We need to let that investigation run its course,” she said. Badenoch said her party would only contest any vote that might be called after the investigation concludes.
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.
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.
