Farage resigns as Clacton MP and will contest the by-election

He seems worried about losing to a bin

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/09/reform-activists-manchester-farage-clacton-byelection-contest

None of the 317 Brexit Party candidates that Farage stood down in his deal with Boris Johnson got their deposits back either.

Hilarious that he now says it's for the people to judge him (before all the facts are known) when Jenrick, Braverman and Anderson didn't give the people the chance to judge them in a by-election when they defected.

Hilarious to say it's for the people of Clacton to scrutinize him and that this is a real election when he has stated he will not take part in constituency hustings with Binface.

Hilarious to talk about the uni party and the establishment when be colluded with the Tories in 2019 and he's a millionaire city banker from a wealthy family and ticks every box that is used to describe the establishment.

Hilarious that his rabid supporters and the bots on social media are spending ages to try and paint Binface as establishment just because he's done some work as a freelancer for the BBC. If he's no threat, why are they making such a converted effort to paint him as establishment? He's a bloke with a bin on his head.

Hilarious that they say Binface has been put up to this as a BBC plant, a fake actor, because the BBC is left wing when Binface has stood against those noted right wingers Andy Burnham, Sadiq Khan, Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Rishi Sunak.

Desperate stuff and only morons fail to see it and still think Farage is a man of the people. It's all an act. Jenrick and Cunningham made themselves look even more stupid than they are and their only strategy is "awful media, witch hunt". That's all Reform will have left.

The British Democrats have announced they are standing

They are a Far Right British Nationalists party who look to have been formed by former BNP and UKIP members

Its an attempt to deflect from Farage’s clear corruption by inventing something dodgy about Simons. Its whataboutery. £5 million is crypto, ‘gifts’ from a convicted criminal alongside investigations by National Crime Agency are hardly comparable to someone standing aside at an election. The attempts to create a false parity are very transparent. Pure and utter whataboutery.

Sorry about the link.

The Survation poll, carried out in January 2024, tested support for Reform under Mack's candidacy and under a scenario in which Farage stood instead. It found that Reform could overtake the Conservatives in Clacton if Farage replaced Mack.

Mack said he was asked by Reform to issue a statement supporting Farage after being removed as candidate and was promised he would be Farage's head of campaign. He said he later stood as an independent and was never reimbursed the £8,500 he had spent.

“I was in shock,” he said. “I realised I was not going to be part of the campaign in the way I had been promised, so decided to stand as an independent instead.”

The same way I don't understand how you can immediately presume there is something dodgy about it.

As the pp said, media is not reporting anything about it being dodgy.

I don't understand how you can immediately presume there is nothing dodgy about it if you are aware of Simons previous behaviour.
The pp was right to question it. Perhaps more will come out later down the line.

It won't archive either.

It is but that doesn't mean there is anything dodgy about it. And that is what the whataboutery is about.

Questioning the motivation of Josh Simons after what he did in Labour Together is perfectly legitimate.

Share token won't work ☹️

If there was anything 'dodgy' to report, the likes of the Telegraph, Mail, Express, Times would have been all over it.

Politicians being parachuted into so called safe seats happens all the time.

Good thing he is no longer an MP, then?

I don't like what happened in Makerfield one bit. But it is a very different situation to the Farage circus.

It looks as if Farage did something very similar to Makerfield in Clacton.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/02edcbee-8a14-4cd4-ab75-a342096ed4ff

Absolutely. Attempts to divert the spotlight are not going to work.

Perhaps focus on those who trouser £5 million without any explanation.

People can consider more than one thing at once, you know? It's not necessarily one or the other.

I do wonder about people who say this kind of thing, as if it's normal to think that humans can only hold one thought at a time.

Democracy is not up for grabs though; the people of Makerfield voted fairly and squarely for Burnham. And it was not a ‘done deal’ as Reform seriously expected to win. There was nothing shady about it. He wanted to stand in Gorton but was prevented from doing so. Simons stepped aside, that was his choice. Impuning his integrity without any evidence is why politics in this country is so poor now. Perhaps focus on those who trouser £5 million without any explanation.

Agree. Josh Simons doesn't exactly have a squeaky clean record either.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/08/untold-story-why-reform-figures-face-nca-scrutiny-nigel-farage

There is nothing dodgy to report

I agree completely that the Burnham thing is underhand and there's something dodgy going on. I think that whole saga will be far more damaging to Labour than leaving Starmer in place would have been. It's starting to look now like there may have been things about to come out of the woodwork that mean the sitting MP would have had to step down anyway.

That doesn't make Farage's vile politics OK, and none of it comes close to being as bad as what Farage is up to , financially or politically.

Nail on the head- something underhand went on there and the media are ignoring it!

I knew when Burnham did the shady thing by forcing an unnecessary by-election and somewhat dubiously messing with the democratic process it would be the start of more shady dealings and more waste of taxpayers money for narcissists' ambitions.

In the Makerfield by-election I still want to know what the sitting MP got in return for resigning- this appears to be an obvious question no journo has asked - he gave up a 90 some k salary and the democratic mandate he got and all the things he said he was going to do - they're all gone, clearly - so what did he get in return? Or what was he promised? I'd like some scrutiny of this because it appears by-elections are up for grabs, possibly to the highest bidder, who knows.

There is no way anyone gives up a democratic mandate and a 90k salary for pure love of Andy Burnham. If our election process is up for grabs in this way, it's a threat to democracy. Given the democratic process seems now to be perverted to prop up political ambitions at a politician's whim, what's to stop this happening all over the place and diverting public money away from much needier causes? It's honestly so lacking in integrity and decency and I can't believe people weren't more angry about it with Burnham. Apparently politicians can constantly reach new lows.

Nice one Rachel 🤣

It is wonderful that everyone, right and left, is taking the piss out of Farage. He has united the UK, but not in the way he planned.