Nigel Farage says he’s ‘done nothing wrong’ as parliament investigates undeclared benefits he accepted from a fraudster.
London, United Kingdom – Far-right politician Nigel Farage is resigning as a member of parliament after revelations about his financial backers, triggering a by-election in which he plans to stand as a candidate.
In a fiery speech on Tuesday, the Reform UK party leader railed against “the establishment” and insisted he has “done nothing wrong” amid growing scrutiny of his funding.
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“I’ve decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” Farage said, referring to the constituency where he was elected as an MP.
“This will be a people vs the establishment by-election,” he said. “It’s a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment, to frankly tell them where to go.”
Farage, who has led Reform into the mainstream with zealous anti-immigration rhetoric, said he faces “yet another standards investigation” after The Sunday Times revealed he did not declare benefits paid for by a convicted fraudster.
The Sunday Times reported George Cottrell, 32, recruited and paid three staff to work on Farage’s social media before the 2024 general election and has continued to allow Farage to use a five-storey Georgian townhouse he rented near Buckingham Palace.
In 2017, Cottrell was jailed in the United States for his role in a money-laundering conspiracy.
But Farage doubled down that the benefits were for personal use, charging that parliamentary “standards are now being used as a political tool”.
“I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money,” he said, adding, “Making money is not a crime.”
Widespread condemnation
Farage’s announcement drew criticism as an expensive stunt from leaders across the political spectrum.
Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats party, wrote on X that Farage has “spent his whole life dodging responsibility for his actions”, saying his resignation was the “latest attempt to escape consequences for his biggest grift”.
Green Party head Zack Polanski took to the same platform to call Farage a “grifter” who “pulled the trigger early” on a by-election.
“The people Vs the establishment?! Reform are literally part of the establishment,” he wrote.
Rupert Lowe, a former Reform MP who formed the hard-right Restore Britain party after publicly breaking with Farage last year, said a by-election would “cost the taxpayer a fortune” and suggested that Farage pay for it himself.
“This is making a mockery of our entire democratic process. He made bad decision after bad decision, and concealed money in a way that has spectacularly backfired,” he said.
Lowe added later that Restore would stand in a by-election “when the investigations into Farage’s finances conclude as we all suspect they will”.
The parliamentary standards commission is already investigating Farage for accepting five million pounds ($6.8m) from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne, a gift Farage initially said would fund his private security.
The Reform leader said his resignation was fuelled by what he characterised as threats to his family’s “privacy and safety” since The Sunday Times report.
“I am going to need security for the rest of my life, and I cannot even tell you how grateful I am to Christopher Harborne because now I will never, ever need to worry about whether I’ve got the resource,” he said.
