Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has resigned as a member of parliament, forcing a by-election in his Clacton seat that he intends to contest himself.
Farage announced the decision in a video statement on July 7, after days of scrutiny over undeclared financial support. He remains leader of the right-wing party, which he has headed since 2024.
He cast the vote as a “people versus the establishment” by-election and said the people of Clacton should judge his conduct. Farage denied any wrongdoing and insisted he had not broken the law.
He said parliamentary standards inquiries were being used as a political tool, and accused the media of harassing his family.
The move followed reports that George Cottrell, a long-time associate, had funded security and staffing for Farage in the year before he was first elected. According to a Sunday Times investigation, Cottrell paid three people to work on Farage’s social media and let him use a five-storey property near Buckingham Palace.
Cottrell was jailed for eight months in the United States in 2017 after admitting a wire fraud charge. Reform UK treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick has described him as an old friend with no formal role in the party.
Farage is separately under investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg, over a £5 million (€5.8 million) gift from Reform donor Christopher Harborne, received before he became an MP. He has said it was a personal gift that did not need to be registered.
The Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats have called for the Electoral Commission and the standards commissioner to examine the support from Cottrell.
A figurehead of the 2016 campaign to leave the European Union, Farage stood down as leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) after that referendum. Clacton, in Essex, was the first seat he won, in 2024, after several attempts to enter parliament.
His departure triggers a by-election in the seat, though no date has yet been set.
