Nigel Farage, the leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, has announced he is resigning as an MP but will immediately seek re-election to clear his name over allegations of financial impropriety.
In a broadcast statement Farage said he’d done nothing wrong.
“I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money,” he said.
The politician is facing an investigation from the parliament’s standards watchdog over a £5million (AUD $9.6million) payment by a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Opposition MPs are also calling for investigations into other million dollar payments that Farage has allegedly received.
Farage has been predicted to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as his party regularly polls higher than the incumbent Labour government led by Sir Keir Starmer. Reform UK currently only has eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons but polls indicate they are now more popular than both the government and the main opposition party – the Conservatives.
Starmer recently announced his own resignation, and the party is currently going through the process of anointing a successor with newly elected MP Andy Burnham expected to take up the role.
Even if Farage is re-elected, the investigation into his finances would likely continue. Farage has described the £5million payment as a gift from businessman Christopher Harborne to cover his personal security. He says the payment was made before he became a member of parliament.
“Making money is not a crime.” Farage said in his statement, arguing that parliament’s code of conduct applies to MPs professional lives, not the private lives or business dealings.
“Parliament has its rules about how Members ought to behave, and I believe I’ve absolutely obeyed those rules, and done so under getting good legal advice. The standards rules are clear, this is what they say: The code applies to members in all aspects of their public life. It does not seek to regulate what members do in their purely personal lives.
“Though it would seem from the last couple of years, from the way I have been treated, that the press would rather our members of parliament had no assets and no wealth at all. They seem to fundamentally object to any MP that has outside income. Indeed, they view those that have continuing business interests with severe, severe scepticism.” Farage said.
Farage said negative media coverage had led to him receiving regular death threats and suffering multiple incidents of being assaulted in public, and the money had been used to ensure his personal safety.
The cost of the by-election will be borne by the taxpayers, but Farage said it’s needed to clear his name.
“Now I’ve decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions. This will be a people versus the establishment by-election. 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 byelection.
“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.’ he said.
Farage was previously the leader of UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 until 2009 and 2010 until 2016. He was a key figures in the campaign for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. He founded the Brexit party, which was later rebranded as Reform UK.
The party has policies on banning what they call “transgender ideology” in schools. They have previously outlined that if elected to government they would outlaw questioning of gender, social transitioning and pronoun swapping. They would also replace the United Kingdom’s Equality Act. A future Reform UK government would also see the United Kingdom leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
