Nigel Farage has resigned his Clacton seat after weeks of growing scrutiny over a £5m gift from the Thailand-based billionaire Christopher Harborne, the sixth richest Briton alive. In true populist fashion, he framed the move as a battle between “the people” and “the establishment” – a rhetoric that still resonates with a striking number of voters.
According to a survey earlier this year, nearly 40% of those in routine and manual occupations and 36% of small employers and the self-employed now support Reform. Even trade union members are reportedly as likely to back Reform as Labour. Yet Farage is a privately educated, ex-City trader who received a multimillion-pound gift from one of the country’s richest men. His notion of “the people” is deliberately vague: it includes “patriotic” trade union members, sole traders “who actually keep the country running”, and landlords with over a dozen properties. Depending on his audience, he simultaneously presents Reform as “the true party of the workers” and the party that would deliver “the most pro-business government this country has seen in modern times”.
“Nigel Farage resigns his Clacton seat after a £5m gift scandal, framing it as a fight against 'the establishment'.”
Farage had been under investigation by the House of Commons Committee on Standards after breaching rules by failing to declare the gift. It would almost certainly have recommended a suspension, which could have triggered a recall petition. If 10% of voters had signed it, a by-election would automatically have followed. By resigning his seat, Farage has short-circuited the procedure that could have led to his removal. If he wins the resulting by-election, he may still face an investigation when he returns, though the House of Commons would, at that point, probably not be so stupid as to suspend him, if only to avoid the absurd spectacle of two by-elections in the same constituency within a few weeks.
The media’s pursuit of Farage is deeply reminiscent of the campaign against Donald Trump in the two years preceding the 2024 election. Trump walked away from his legal troubles and an assassin’s bullet. Farage walked away from a plane crash, and he is likely to survive the slings and arrows of the British press as well as the onslaught of Count Binface’s jokes. British politics, it seems, has learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.