When Nigel Farage announced he would make a statement on his future on Tuesday morning, it sparked fevered speculation that the embattled MP was about to quit as Reform UK leader. Instead, an angry and defiant Farage, calling himself the most “physically and verbally abused politician of modern times”, denied accusations of financial wrongdoing and said he would stand down as an MP in Clacton and stand again in the resulting by-election — making it a referendum on the so-called “Establishment” attacks on him. A source described his decision as “a card straight out of the [Donald] Trump playbook”. Trump himself posted a link to an article headlined “They’re Running the 2024 Anti-Trump Playbook on Nigel Farage”.
But behind the political theatre, party insiders say succession planning is quietly underway. A source with strong links to Reform said some members were fighting like “rats in a sack” to be seen as the leader-in-waiting, with no settled view on who would be best placed to take over. The source named three front runners: Richard Tice, Robert Jenrick and Zia Yusuf. “Richard Tice has developed significantly,” they said. “When he was temporary leader before Nigel returned, he didn’t have that much of a profile. That’s changed.” Jenrick, they added, “is clearly a significant character… he will be an important one”, while Yusuf was praised. The grumbling about non-MPs given senior roles is understood to have been behind David Bull’s departure as chairman.
“Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice demands NCA investigate leaks as party insiders jostle to succeed Nigel Farage.”
As internal tensions simmer, Reform deputy leader Richard Tice has written to the boss of the National Crime Agency asking if the body will investigate whether it leaked his private financial information to the media. Payments made to Tice’s organisations were flagged to the NCA as part of its Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) programme — something Tice says he only became aware of when he was contacted by the Guardian newspaper. Reform UK believes the paper’s information is likely to have come from the NCA. In a statement, an NCA spokesperson said: “The NCA does not confirm or deny the receipt of suspicious activity reports (SARs), nor comment on how any SAR is used. SARs are confidential and breaching that confidentiality risks committing a tipping off offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.”
Tice’s company Tisun Investment received a loan of £80,000 from George Cottrell, a close ally of Farage, in late 2024. A think tank owned by Tice, Britain Means Business, also received a £1m donation from Cottrell’s mother Fiona in June 2024. Data from the Electoral Commission shows that Britain Means Business donated £500,000 to Reform UK in the same month. The NCA was notified about the payments as part of the SARs programme, which alerts law enforcement to potential instances of money laundering. In 2024/25, 866,616 cases were flagged. It is understood that the NCA often makes information in SARs reports available to police forces and other organisations involved in their investigations.
Cottrell is at the centre of a political row after the Sunday Times reported he had supplied Farage with support including security and social media staff in the year before he became an MP. Under parliamentary rules, newly elected MPs must declare gifts or benefits received in the 12 months before their election that relate to their “parliamentary or political activities”, but there is an exemption for those that are “purely personal”. Reform has argued that Farage did not breach the guidelines by not declaring the support from Cottrell because the support was provided in a “purely personal capacity”. With Farage facing four separate probes into his financial conduct by Parliament’s standards watchdog — and now his own deputy demanding an inquiry into leaks — the question of who might lead Reform next is becoming increasingly urgent.
