Zürcher Nachrichten - UK hard-right leader Farage resigns as MP to force snap vote in finances row

The unusual move comes as Farage, whose Reform UK party leads national opinion polls, faces mounting pressure over the non-disclosure of gifts, including allegedly from a convicted fraudster.

"I've decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions," Farage said in a televised address, referring to the southeast England constituency he has represented for two years.

"This will be a people versus the establishment by-election," he added, confirming he would be putting his name forward to stand.

Parliament's anti-sleaze watchdog has been investigating the hard-right firebrand and long-time anti-European Union campaigner over the non-disclosure of a £5 million ($6.6 million) donation from Thailand-based crypto-currency billionaire Christopher Harborne.

Farage's resignation means the probe will be suspended until after the by-election.

Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, was also facing calls to investigate allegations that George Cottrell, convicted of wire fraud in the United States, paid for security and staff for Farage shortly before he became a member of parliament.

Farage, who helped persuade Britons to vote to leave the EU during a divisive referendum in 2016, was elected an MP on his eighth attempt during the July 2024 general election.

Reform, which advocates mass deportations of illegal migrants and the scrapping of net zero energy targets, has since led the ruling Labour party in opinion polls.

Fears among Labour MPs that Reform could win the next nationwide vote, expected in 2029, ultimately led them to force Prime Minister Keir Starmer to announce his resignation last month.

Starmer said Farage's move was "a desperate stunt" by a man "up to his neck in sleaze".

New MPs are supposed to register any money they received in the 12 months before their election unless it cannot be "reasonably" seen as linked to political activities.

Farage has insisted he did not need to declare the money from Harborne because it was a personal gift to pay for his own security -- a claim that the major Reform donor, corroborated.

- 'Political tool' -

"I am the most physically and verbally attacked public figure or politician of modern times," Farage said in his defiant address, seeking to justify the donation.

Cottrell, a 32-year-old crypto entrepreneur from an aristocratic family, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the United States in 2017 and was jailed for eight months.

Labour and the centrist Liberal Democrats had asked Greenberg to probe the latest allegations.

"I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all," Farage said, claiming that parliamentary standards were "now being used as a political tool".

The standards commissioner probe could be resumed if Farage wins the by-election and returns to parliament.

A spokesperson for Andy Burnham, widely expected to become Labour's new leader and therefore prime minister later this month, branded Farage's move "a gimmick designed to distract from serious allegations about Farage's funders".

"Ultimately all it does is buy him time," Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, told AFP.

"He'll probably make it back into parliament but at that point the investigation will start up again. So he can run, but he can't hide."

Clacton is a seaside town in Essex which voted heavily in favour of Brexit. Farage won the seat with a majority of 8,405, and his party has offered to cover the cost of the by-election.

Rupert Lowe, leader of the far-right rival party Restore Britain who is backed by US tech tycoon Elon Musk, said his party would not participate in an "unnecessary sham" election.

But he said Restore would stand in "the second one, held later this year, when the investigations into Farage's finances conclude as we all suspect they will".

By-elections usually take place between 25 and 35 days following a resignation.

The Clacton ballot could also be an early test for Burnham, who is expected to enter Downing Street on 20 July.

N.Fischer--NZN