{"id":7731,"date":"2026-07-07T16:35:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/07\/reform-uks-farage-resigns-as-mp-amid-funding-scandal-forcing-by-election\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T16:35:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:35:24","slug":"reform-uks-farage-resigns-as-mp-amid-funding-scandal-forcing-by-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/07\/reform-uks-farage-resigns-as-mp-amid-funding-scandal-forcing-by-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform UK\u2019s Farage resigns as MP amid funding scandal, forcing by-election"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Nigel Farage says he\u2019s \u2018done nothing wrong\u2019 as parliament investigates undeclared benefits he accepted from a fraudster.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p><strong>London, United Kingdom \u2013<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n<p>In a fiery speech on Tuesday, the Reform UK party leader railed against \u201cthe establishment\u201d and insisted he has \u201cdone nothing wrong\u201d amid <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/6\/uks-farages-gold-deal-tests-his-populist-brand-as-restore-britain-rises\">growing scrutiny<\/a> of his funding.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/6\/uks-farages-gold-deal-tests-his-populist-brand-as-restore-britain-rises\">UK\u2019s Farage\u2019s gold deal tests his populist brand as Restore Britain rises<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/5\/reform-uks-farage-failed-to-disclose-funds-from-convicted-criminal-report\">Reform UK\u2019s Farage failed to disclose funds from convicted criminal: Report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/25\/we-did-regain-control-the-brexit-voters-with-no-regrets-10-years-on\">\u2018Brexit has not been the economic disaster many claimed\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,\u201d Farage said, referring to the constituency where he was elected as an MP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis will be a people vs the establishment by-election,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment, to frankly tell them where to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Farage, who has led Reform into the mainstream with zealous anti-immigration rhetoric, said he faces \u201cyet another standards investigation\u201d after The Sunday Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/uk\/politics\/article\/revealed-nigel-farage-secretly-funded-by-convicted-criminal-j0brtrlnk\">revealed<\/a>\u00a0he did not <span>declare benefits paid for by a convicted fraudster.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Sunday Times reported George Cottrell, 32, recruited and paid three staff to work on Farage\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, Cottrell was jailed in the United States for his role in a money-laundering conspiracy.<\/p>\n<p>But Farage doubled down that the benefits were for personal use, charging that parliamentary \u201cstandards are now being used as a political tool\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cMaking money is not a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"widespread-condemnation\">Widespread condemnation<\/h2>\n<p>Farage\u2019s announcement drew criticism as an expensive stunt from leaders across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n<p>Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats party, wrote on X that Farage has \u201cspent his whole life dodging responsibility for his actions\u201d, saying his resignation was the \u201clatest attempt to escape consequences for his biggest grift\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Green Party head Zack Polanski took to the same platform to call Farage a \u201cgrifter\u201d who \u201cpulled the trigger early\u201d on a by-election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe people Vs the establishment?! Reform are literally part of the establishment,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201ccost the taxpayer a fortune\u201d and suggested that Farage pay for it himself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Lowe added later that Restore would stand in a by-election \u201cwhen the investigations into Farage\u2019s finances conclude as we all suspect they will\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The Reform leader said his resignation was fuelled by what he characterised as threats to his family\u2019s \u201cprivacy and safety\u201d since The Sunday Times report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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\u2019ve got the resource,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nigel Farage says he\u2019s \u2018done nothing wrong\u2019 as parliament investigates undeclared benefits he accepted from a fraudster. London, United Kingdom \u2013 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 &#8230; <a title=\"Reform UK\u2019s Farage resigns as MP amid funding scandal, forcing by-election\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/07\/reform-uks-farage-resigns-as-mp-amid-funding-scandal-forcing-by-election\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Reform UK\u2019s Farage resigns as MP amid funding scandal, forcing by-election\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}