NIGEL FARAGE has announced he will resign as MP for Clacton and stand again in the by-election he intends to trigger, as pressure grows over questions about his finances.
The Reform UK leader said voters in Clacton should be the ones to judge him following reports about undeclared gifts and financial support linked to cryptocurrency figures.
In a dramatic statement on Tuesday afternoon, Farage denied wrongdoing and said he had “done nothing wrong” and “not broken the law in any way at all”.
He said he would resign from Parliament, forcing a by-election, and would put his name forward again as the Reform UK candidate.
“This will be a people versus the establishment by-election,” he said.
Farage said the final straw had been media coverage involving his daughter, claiming a photograph showing where she lives had been published and accusing journalists of putting his family’s safety at risk.
He said: “I will not tolerate intimidation of my family. I will not tolerate the location of where they live being revealed.”
The announcement comes as Farage faces scrutiny over a £5m gift from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne, which he has described as a personal gift and compared to a “lottery win”.
He said the money had been given on an unconditional basis, adding that he needed funds for personal security. Farage claimed he was the “most physically and verbally attacked” politician in modern Britain and said police had failed to properly act on threats against him.
Reports have also focused on alleged support linked to George Cottrell, a crypto entrepreneur and long-time Farage ally who has previously been convicted of fraud in the United States. Farage said he was now facing a further standards investigation as a result of recent reporting.
Farage used the statement to accuse Labour, the media and the wider political establishment of trying to stop Reform UK’s rise.
He also criticised proposed restrictions on political donations from people living abroad, claiming Labour was “coming for our money” and comparing the move to “living in a communist country”.
The Clacton seat was won by Farage at the 2024 general election, when he became an MP at the eighth attempt. He secured a majority of 8,405 over the Conservatives.
The timing of any by-election will depend on the formal parliamentary process. MPs cannot simply resign from the House of Commons and must instead be appointed to a nominal Crown office, such as the Chiltern Hundreds or Manor of Northstead, which disqualifies them from sitting.
Farage said he would fight the contest to win and continue what he called Reform UK’s “political revolution”.
Addressing Clacton voters directly, he said: “If I win, you win, because if I lose, they win.”
