Nigel Farage has quit as an MP to fight a by-election contest where his main rival looks set to be a comedy candidate with a bin on his head.
The Reform UK leader said he wanted a “people versus the establishment” fight in Clacton after coming under intense scrutiny about undeclared gifts and financial support before he was first elected.
But the main Westminster parties are boycotting the contest, with Mr Farage’s highest-profile opponent likely to be the masked novelty candidate Count Binface.
Technically, MPs cannot resign and must instead be appointed by the Chancellor to be steward and bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds or the Manor of Northstead, symbolic roles which bar them from the Commons.
Rachel Reeves said she had approved Mr Farage’s request even though “it is a farce and a desperate distraction, and the people of Clacton deserve better”.
“But if he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won’t stop him,” she added.
The Liberal Democrats had called on her to block the process, saying Mr Farage should not be allowed to quit until a parliamentary investigation into undeclared donations had concluded.
Mr Farage is being investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner over whether he should have registered a £5 million gift from cryptocurrency tycoon Christopher Harborne, which he said was needed to fund the security he required as a result of multiple threats against him.
The Reform leader is also facing questions over support provided by George Cottrell after a Sunday Times investigation.
Long-term ally Mr Cottrell reportedly recruited and paid three staff to work on Mr Farage’s social media before the general election, and has continued to allow him to use a five-storey Georgian property he rented near Buckingham Palace.
New MPs are required to register any gifts worth more than £300 they received in the previous 12 months, except where the gift “could not be reasonably thought by others” to relate to their political activities.
The Reform UK leader maintains he has done nothing wrong, and claimed the people of Clacton “should be the judges of my actions” after accusing the media and his political opponents of being part of an establishment effort to attack him.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Farage had “run himself into a cul-de-sac” by triggering a by-election which is being boycotted by the main parties.
The Prime Minister told reporters at the Nato summit in Turkey: “Nigel Farage has been utterly exposed in this complete stunt that he was trying to set up.”
He said the Reform leader was “up to his neck in sleaze and he doesn’t want to answer questions about it”.
The inquiry by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg will be paused but can resume if Mr Farage wins the by-election and returns to the Commons.
If he is found to have broken the rules and a suspension of more than 10 days is imposed, it could trigger a recall petition and the prospect of Mr Farage losing his seat – forcing another by-election.
Mr Farage told GB News: “It seems that the media and political classes want to paint me out to be like a war criminal, as if everything I’ve ever done is wrong, is bent, is corrupt.
“I don’t get a chance to properly answer it. I don’t see why I should be judged by them.
“We’ll ask the people here what they think, and if they give me a big endorsement, that sends a big message to the establishment.”
Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and Restore Britain have said they will not stand and Mr Farage said it was “an insult to the people in the constituency”.
“They are running away from the battle because they know they would be annihilated. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
Count Binface conceded he will probably not win in Clacton, where Mr Farage had a majority of 8,405 and 46.2% of the vote in 2024.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “My job is to celebrate and defend the wonders of British democracy.
“And look at this, eh? The fact that you are interviewing me on the Today programme, because all the other parties aren’t standing, says more about them than it does about me.
“Are they running scared from old Binny, or do they think that Nigel’s running a cunning stunt? And I pronounced that carefully at 8.55 in the morning.”
Andy Burnham, who is expected to replace Sir Keir Starmer in No 10 within weeks, defeated Count Binface in the Makerfield by-election last month which saw him return to Westminster and effectively finish the Prime Minister’s time in office.
He shared a picture of himself with his masked rival with the caption: “Always worth knowing when bin day is.”
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