Nigel Farage’s decision to call a by-election in Clacton-on-Sea is straight out the Donald Trump playbook.
Surrounded by allegations about his financial affairs, he is pre-empting the process of a Parliamentary watchdog over the £5m donation from Christopher Harborne and trigger a forced by-election. Instead, he’s chosen to make his seaside voters his jury, not Parliament.
“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 by-election,” Farage said in an angry straight-to-camera statement on Tuesday.
The Sunday Times reported that George Cottrell, a convicted criminal and longtime friend of Farage, funded security and social media staff who worked on Farage’s online content in the year before he became an MP. Under parliamentary rules, new members must declare financial interests and “registrable benefits” received in the 12 months before their election. He is now under further investigation from the Parliamentary standards watchdog. He denies any wrongdoing.
“It seems to me that the Establishment have now decided that they can’t beat us fairly, so chosen to use foul means,” he claimed.
This is Trump-on-Sea. Any investigation – however legitimate – or standards referral is being reframed not as accountability but as an attack on him personally, and by extension on his voters. Instead of addressing the specifics, his response was to attack the Sunday Times as “Labour-supporting”, a reflex that stems from the “fake news” narrative. And to blame the “Establishment.”
The more “the Establishment” comes for Farage, the more it validates the appealing sense of brittle grievance: that he is the only one telling voters uncomfortable truths and that’s precisely why “they” are trying to take him down. Trump claimed every such indictment as a “badge of honour”.
Farage was keen to stress his victimhood, arguing he needs money for security: “I am the most physically and verbally attacked public figure or politician of modern times,” he said.
He told the story of how he was in a village pub: “In come the mob, about 50 of them, we decided the safest thing to do was as quickly as possible to get into the car and to drive away, but the mob surrounded the car, banging on the bonnet and the windscreen, kicking the side of the doors.” The car was a write-off, he said, but he decided not to publicise it, nor claim on the insurance.
He will ask the voters of Clacton to believe the narrative that MPs of other parties are coming for him, and therefore they are coming for them too. His financial woes are framed as a proxy for the treatment of Reform voters more generally. They will probably turn out in their droves to vote for him.
“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 by-election,” he said.
The decision to prompt a by-election on an issue of principle echoes a 2008 decision by Conservative MP David Davis to resign from the House of Commons and forced a vote in his own constituency of Haltemprice and Howden in East Yorkshire on the issue of civil liberties.
It turned into an absolute circus, with a chaotic cast list including conspiracy theorists and beauty queens. Then the major opposition parties – Labour and the Liberal Democrats – did not contest the seat to avoid legitimizing what they viewed as a stunt.
Farage was visibly furious at what he sees as the mainstream media’s attack on him. It followed claims that Sky News door-stepped his daughter, which the broadcaster has denied.
But the decision to prompt a by-election is just part of the Farage playbook. He has always been a flouncer. Recent history is littered with instances of him deciding to quit politics. In 2015, he resigned as UKIP leader after failing to win South Thanet, then “un-resigned” within days. In 2016, he quit as UKIP leader post-Brexit referendum – saying “I want my life back” – although he stayed on as an MEP.
In 2022, he resigned as Reform UK leader – previously known as the Brexit Party – claiming he was “retiring from politics” for good, but became the party’s honorary president. Then, after teasing supporters for months, returned in 2024.
His flouncing has always had a reason. He’s stepped back when he’s extracted maximum value from a fight such as Brexit, only to pop up again when a new grievance emerges. He was campaigning on illegal Channel crossings before he came back to Reform in June 2024 to better use the party’s platform and infrastructure.
This time it appears flouncing is to avoid the scrutiny of a Parliamentary process. He wants to tell Parliament its rules don’t matter to him. The standards process will nonetheless carry on if and when he is re-elected. But even if it reaches a conclusion of sanctions against him, he will have pre-empted its findings. Even if there is a recall petition, he will likely have a fresh mandate from his electors anyway.
Like the Terminator in a blazer and chinos, he’ll be back.
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