Will Nigel Farage’s by-election gamble backfire?

What’s the story?

Nigel Farage has resigned as the MP for Clacton, triggering a by-election he intends to fight, and win, to secure his support with constituents and Reform members.

He has been facing increasing scrutiny over his finances, following a £5 million donation from a crypto billionaire, promotion for a gold bullion company and financial support from a convicted criminal.

In a video speech Farage accused “the establishment” of using “foul means” to address the rise of Reform UK and seek response from him on his personal funds.

"I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way. I have not misused public money," he said.

He attacked the “mainstream media” and accused it of wanting Reform members to have no “assets”.

He described the 5bn gift as a personal “lottery win”.

“Standards are now being used as a political tool," Farage added.

"I can do with that money whatever I wish."

He said a Clacton by-election would be part of a "political revolution", in a country that is "broken" and a place where men are unable to wear watches, and women unable to wear jewellery on UK streets.

“He did, in fact, win the lottery by having very rich friends,” says Emily Maitlis.

“He also made the case of why it's really important for him to be rich and why it's really important for him to be gifted all this money.

"He talked about all the occasions in which his life had been endangered that we don't yet know about, as a way of justifying the need for this £5 million donation from the crypto billionaire."

How Nigel Farage exposed his ‘deep martyr complex’

Farage also described himself as an influencer and investor, although the upcoming by-election will prove whether these impress the voters in Clacton.

“If you have to say that you're an influencer, it usually means you're not,” Lewis Goodall adds, describing Farage’s hastily-arranged address as “doused in endless quantities of self-pity”.

The video address came after a confrontation between Farage and a Sky News journalist at Heathrow airport, as the Reform leader returned from America, having appeared as part of its 250 year anniversary celebrations.

In it, he issued a "direct threat" to Sky News, accusing the broadcaster of harassing his family.

Reporters from various UK news outlets gathered recently outside one of the several properties he owns, and it is believed to be the home of Farage’s daughter.

Farage has said Sky News is lying when it denies having approached his family, and claims The Times newspaper published details of his family's home - which has been denied by its reporters.

Lewis says questions about Farage’s finances by reporters, including those from Sky News, who Farage is particularly furious with, are “legitimate”, but says he has been told by Reform insiders that his anger at the media is genuine.

The easy solution to Nigel Farage’s problems

Maitlis believes there is a simple solution for Farage if he wants the scrutiny to end and the press to disappear from outside his numerous properties.

“If you want to stop that kind of thing happening, then aren't you obliged as a politician to actually come forward with the answers to the questions that people are trying to ask?” Maitlis says.

“Reporters didn't stand outside his daughter's house to harass her, they didn't go after his family members to try and intimidate them, they were asking legitimate questions about money, about finance, about property that he had owned and not declared.”

What won’t help is triggering the by-election. Resigning as an MP will pause the Parliamentary Standards’ Commissioner inquiry, but if he wins, it will be restarted.

So is Farage simply burning his bridges?

“If you use – as Nigel Farage has done – the media relentlessly on the way up, at every twist and turn of your career, if you depend on the media to tell your anti-establishment story all the way up for 30 years, then when the same journalists start asking legitimate questions, you cannot turn round and start berating them,” Maitlis says.

“You cannot turn around and threaten those reporters, threaten their bosses.

“What he is doing is threatening people in the very way that he is talking about feeling threatened himself, I just don't think that adds up.”

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