Reform UK leader Nigel Farage quits as MP over financial allegations

UK right-wing populist leader Nigel Farage has announced he will quit as an MP before standing in a byelection, in an attempt to fight off criticism over financial donations from a cryptocurrency billionaire and a convicted fraudster.

The Reform UK leader made the announcement at the very end of a 15-minute live broadcast on Tuesday (Wednesday morning AEST) that didn’t have journalists present or allow questions from the media.

He repeatedly declared that he’d done nothing wrong, claiming he was “the most physically and verbally attacked public figure or politician of modern times”.

Farage claimed the voters of his electorate, Clacton-on-Sea, should be the judges of his actions.

“It’s a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment to frankly tell them where to go, and that is why I will be putting my name forward to stand in this by-election,” he said. 

“I will fight to win. I will fight to continue the political revolution that Reform has started.

“And I would say this to you, the voters of Clacton: If I win, you win, because if I lose, they win and we will never, with the two old parties, get the type of fundamental change that we need to fix broken Britain.”

Polls in recent months have consistently put Farage and Reform in front of the traditional Labour and Conservative parties. The EU-sceptic, anti-immigration party enjoyed huge success in local elections in May.

But Farage is facing enormous scrutiny over millions of pounds he has personally received since becoming an MP.

There is a probe by Parliament’s standards watchdog over a £5 million ($9.6 million) gift from Thailand-based British cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne. 

Opposition politicians are seeking another investigation over donations from George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto-gambling entrepreneur who served a prison sentence for fraud in the US.

During his address, Farage repeatedly declared that he had done nothing wrong and hit out at the media’s coverage of the funding.

He argued the money from Harborne was an “unconditional gift” that helped him pay for “very, very substantial” security bills and claimed he was the “most physically and verbally attacked public figure or politician of modern times”.

“I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all,” he said.

“I have not misused public money, and you know, for the first two years of being an MP, my personal MP expenses are zero, not, of course, that you’ll read about that in mainstream media.”

Farage, who lost seven House of Commons elections and byelections before finally claiming Clacton in 2024, appeared particularly furious about what he considered unreasonable encroachment on his family amid the furore over his party’s funding.

“I will not tolerate intimidation of my family. I will not tolerate the location of where they live being revealed,” he said.

“I will not tolerate any of my family being endangered because of what I choose to do in public life, so yes, you can ask, am I angry? Well, I’ve never been angrier in my life.”

The scrutiny of his finances has spurred speculation about the future of a politician some considered the favourite to be prime minister after the next national election.

Reform UK was the big winner in local and regional elections in May that triggered the ouster of Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the hands of his own Labour Party.

But Farage’s party has lost three consecutive byelections that it hoped to win, a possible sign its support may be sagging. 

The most recent loss was to Labour’s Andy Burnham, who is likely to succeed Starmer as prime minister within weeks.

Burnham called the resignation “a gimmick designed to distract from serious allegations about Farage’s funders”.

“What really matters in politics is how we can change Westminster to take power for communities and bring it back to people to make life more affordable for them,” he said.

Parliamentary standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg is investigating the donation to Farage from Harborne, who is based in Thailand. 

If Farage is found to have breached the rules, he could be suspended from Parliament. A suspension of 10 days or more would allow voters in his Clacton constituency in eastern England to trigger a byelection for the seat.

Multiple commentators were quick to suggest Farage’s resignation was an attempt to head off that possibility and reframe his position among voters.

“I think it’s a very interesting development, and it was clearly intended to produce a specific result, which was to campaign for this byelection from a position of strength, having resigned himself, rather than a position of weakness, having had the recall petition and various other things take place and forcing the byelection upon him,” Deltapoll co-founder Joe Twyman told the BBC.

“And so Nigel Farage presumably sees this as a strategic benefit but any byelection is fought with risk.”

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said Farage had “spent his whole life dodging responsibility for his actions”.

“This new stunt is his latest attempt to escape consequences for his biggest grift. We won’t let him,” he said.

Reform’s rise has echoes of Trump’s nationalist, anti-immigration playbook, and Pauline Hanson’s approach with One Nation, which has surged in the polls in recent months.

Farage has capitalised on — critics say stoked — concerns about migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, which he has called an invasion.

Hanson is set to meet with Farage at the conservative CPAC conference held in the UK later this month.

– Reported with AP