Nigel Farage has resigned his Clacton seat, triggering a by-election that he hopes will allow him to sidestep a standards investigation into a £5m gift from the Thailand-based billionaire Christopher Harborne. In true populist fashion, Farage framed the move as a battle between “the people” and “the establishment”. Yet the Reform UK leader – a privately educated, ex-City trader who received a multimillion-pound gift from the sixth richest Briton alive – has seen his approval ratings suffer over the scandal.
The resignation short-circuited a looming investigation by the House of Commons Committee on Standards, which was examining Farage’s failure to declare the gift. In all likelihood, the committee would have recommended a suspension, triggering a recall petition. If 10% of voters had signed it, a by-election would have followed automatically. But by resigning, Farage has forced the contest on his own terms.
“Nigel Farage resigns his seat to avoid a standards probe over a £5m gift from a billionaire.”
The question is why thousands of British workers still see him as their champion. A survey earlier this year found that nearly 40% of those in routine and manual occupations and 36% of small employers and the self-employed now back Reform. Even trade union members are reportedly as likely to vote Reform as Labour. The secret, analysts argue, is that Farage’s notion of “the people” is deliberately vague – encompassing “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”.
The attempt to hold Farage accountable mirrors a pattern seen across the West. The great French diplomat Talleyrand remarked about the Bourbons after the French Revolution that they had “learnt nothing and forgotten nothing”. The same could be said of the establishment’s response to the populist Right. Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory should have shown that “lawfare” – using legal processes to weaken opponents – does not work politically. Yet last week a similar attempt to bar Marine Le Pen from running in next year’s French presidential election failed after an appeals court reduced the length of her ban. In Romania, the supreme court banned the far-Right leader Călin Georgescu from the 2024 presidential race. In Germany, the CDU wants to deprive Björn Höcke of his right to vote and stand for election. In the Netherlands, they went after Geert Wilders. Again and again, the establishment has refused to learn.
Farage faces neither criminal charges nor a police investigation. The Commons committee would have almost certainly recommended a suspension, but by resigning he has forced a by-election that he is favourite to win. If he returns to the House, it would 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 weeks.
“Farage walked away from a plane crash, and I suspect he will survive the slings and arrows of the British press as well as the onslaught of Count Binface’s jokes,” notes one commentator. For now, the voters of Clacton will decide whether the man who claims to speak for the people actually is one of them.
