Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has accused the Westminster establishment of cowering and being too scared to stand against the Brexit champion in the upcoming by-election in Clacton.
On Tuesday, Mr Farage sensationally announced his resignation from Parliament, saying he would put his political future in the hands of his constituents as he faces a parliamentary standards committee investigation into donations from friends made before he became an MP.
As the donations were made before he entered the House of Commons in 2024 and were not made to politically influence him, Mr Farage has argued that he did not need to declare them to parliamentary watchdogs. Nevertheless, the story has created a media frenzy, with some outlets even going so far as to doorstep properties occupied by Farage’s family members, including his non-political daughter.
This appears to be greater scrutiny than was placed on members of the Labour government, who were revealed to have received large gifts from Indo-Trinidadian media mogul Waheed Alli, who was subsequently granted insider access to Downing Street.
Mr Farage said on Tuesday that rather than allowing the media and political elites to decide his fate, he would run in a special by-election in Clacton-on-Sea in a race he branded as “people versus the establishment” contest, vowing: “I will fight to win, I will fight to continue the political revolution that Reform has started.”
However, apparently concerned about their limited prospects against the Reform leader, the legacy political parties said they would not contest the election, seeking to undermine its credibility, with novelty candidate ‘Count Binface’ being the only significant challenger so far to enter the race.
On Wednesday, Reform Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf accused the establishment parties of colluding to boycott the race. He added that the ultimate reason the Tories, Labour, Liberal Democrats, and Greens refused to participate was fear of losing.
“The reason they are choosing not to field a candidate is very simple – that, having screamed for a by-election at the top of their lungs for several weeks, now, having been given one, they are running scared,” he said per The Telegraph.
Yusuf said that the Reform boss had been “a thorn in their side for decades” and that “the only reason they are choosing not to field a candidate is they know in their hearts they have no chance of beating him.”
Reform UK’s chief whip, MP Lee Anderson, said that the Westminster establishment and legacy media have long attempted to cast Farage as outside the bounds of acceptability, and have done everything to “assassinate his character and that of everyone involved with Reform UK.” Anderson said that “you can feel the hatred” within the House of Commons towards Farage and all other Reform UK MPs.
“The establishment are bullies that attack and attack but when the tables are turned they run away. Nigel has thrown down the gauntlet and told the other parties that he will meet them at the ballot box and every one of them has bottled it,” he said.
“We see you for the cowards you are. We are coming for all of you at every single ballot box in the country. Reform UK are the last hope to save our country from you treacherous cowards.”
The special election in Clacton, which has yet to be scheduled, will likely divert attention away from the opening days of the likely incoming government of former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. The likely next PM was elected to parliament last month in a by-election of his own in Makerfield after the seat was cleared by anti-Breitbart activist Josh Simons, who resigned in an apparent backroom deal to allow Burnham to parachute himself into the House of Commons and therefore be able to wage a leadership challenge against outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
With Burnham set to become the leader of the United Kingdom on the basis of just over 25,000 votes in the Manchester constituency, Farage and Reform have demanded that the government call a snap election to see if they still have the support of the people. Reform, which has held a commanding lead in the polls for well over a year, will likely attempt to use the Clacton by-election as an amplifier for their call for a general election.
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