Nigel Farage resigns to stand in ‘people vs establishment’ byelection – The Latest
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Why did Nigel Farage resign as an MP for Clacton-on-Sea?
This is The Guardian.
Nigel Farage is standing down essentially to say, look, I've got these standards inquiries into me. I think they should be put to the voters of Clacton-on-Sea and not really be decided by Parliament. Here we go.
Today, I will resign as a Member of Parliament for Clacton-on-Sea, thereby forcing a by-election.
From The Guardian's Today In Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hough. So at midday, we had the announcement that Nigel Farage would be holding a previously unannounced press conference at 2pm to announce the future of his public life. Kieran Stacey, our policy editor, that sent the whole of Westminster and beyond into a state of red alert. It took him about 15 minutes to get to the nub of what he wanted to announce, which is that he is standing down as an MP in Clacton-on-Sea to trigger a by-election that he will run in. What is the political logic here?
Well, what's going on is this is a ruse that has been used by politicians before, successfully and unsuccessfully, I should say. When a politician, an MP, is particularly unhappy about the state of affairs, one thing or another, they will sometimes stand down and trigger a by-election to essentially campaign on that one issue alone. The one that springs to mind is David Davis, the Tory MP, standing down and running in protest. He was in opposition at the time, but in protest against the government's plans for detention.
What is the significance of the byelection triggered by Farage's resignation?
The government was planning to be able to detain terror suspects for 90 days. David Davis didn't like this, stood in a by-election, won the by-election, and then government policy changed. Now, how much of those two things are connected, you can argue about. However, it's also been unsuccessful in the past. Zach Goldsmith stood down and actually ended up losing that seat to the Liberal Democrats, Sarah Olney, and is no longer in Parliament. This is the first time that I have seen of an MP standing down, not on a matter of principle, but essentially to burnish their own agenda and their own public profile. So Nigel Farage is standing down essentially to say, look, I've got these ethics, these standards inquiries into me.
I think they should be put to the voters of Clacton-on-Sea and not really be decided by Parliament. Here we go.
So on those two investigations, we knew that there was a standard commission's look into the £5 million gift from Christopher Harbourn, the crypto billionaire, as revealed by The Guardian back in April. Farage now said in his press conference that there will be a second look into gifts and help he received from his close ally, George Cottrell. But what implications does his stepping down as an MP in Clacton have on those procedures?
Yeah, it's a really good point. Let's just take a step back and think about the reason that Nigel Farage has done this. We actually only found this out today in Nigel Farage's own statement to camera.
What are the allegations against Nigel Farage regarding undeclared gifts?
He is now facing a second Standards Commissioner inquiry into money he has received from George Cottrell. And what essentially happened is in the year before Nigel Farage became an MP, he accepted extraordinary amounts of money and help from some very wealthy people. Christopher Harborne and George Cottrell, both of whom were involved in the crypto industry, by the way. He took this money. He took what the services that they were paying for. He then became an MP and was then supposed to declare everything he'd received that had anything to do with politics in the 12 months before becoming an MP. But what he says is these gifts were made to me in a private capacity. They were to do with my personal security and then nothing to do with my political activities.
But essentially, what we now know is that there are those two investigations going on. Having a look at Parliament's rulebook on this, it seems that what will happen is during the period of that campaign, those investigations will have to be suspended because Nigel Farage won't technically be an MP anymore. However, the commissioner can then resume them after he if he wins that by election and can still carry out the sanctions that the commissioner was able to in the first place.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did Nigel Farage resign as an MP for Clacton-on-Sea?
0:00–1:44
2
What is the significance of the byelection triggered by Farage's resignation?
1:44–3:14
3
What are the allegations against Nigel Farage regarding undeclared gifts?
3:14–4:44
4
How does Farage's resignation relate to his ongoing investigations?
4:44–5:40
5
What are the implications of Farage's actions for his political future?
5:40–7:01
6
How does Farage portray himself in relation to the media and establishment?
7:01–8:44
7
What are the potential outcomes of the byelection in Clacton-on-Sea?
8:44–10:12
8
How might Farage's public image affect his chances in the byelection?
10:12–12:18