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

[Twiglets1]

Nigel Farage is resigning as MP for Clacton, triggering a by-election in the constituency - which he will stand in.

He says he wants the people of Clacton to decide whether he is worthy of representing them - not the mainstream media who he feels constantly attack him personally as well as the party he represents.

I think Clarkson should join the Tories and stand against him.

And Russia allegedly hacked his phone but he didn't report that either

The aim is quite simple. Farage will face major censure as he has breached Parliamentary rules. He wants to detract from this by claiming that he has a common mandate. It is pretty basic and right out of the Trump playbook. I am not sure that UK voters are quite that stupid.

I agree.
Just don't play the game.
If he's the only candidate he'll win but it proves bugger all in a 1 horse race.

Though in another sense, that would be just handing him the win on a plate.

Isn't it better for the Conservative party to try to win instead?

I hope not.

Kemi Badenoch told POLITICO that Nigel Farage is “cracking under pressure” after her top right-wing rival triggered a surprise by-election in his Clacton seat.

Speaking to Anne McElvoy at the Playbook Live summit in London, Badenoch, whose once-dominant party is being challenged in the polls by Farage on the right, said of Farage’s move: “What I saw was a man who is cracking under the pressure.”

“He went on telly, having a hissy fit, because for the first time he is finally having to face some scrutiny after a very long honeymoon, and he cannot handle it.”

The Tories lost Clacton on a huge swing to Farage at the 2024 general election, but now face an opportunity to snatch the seaside constituency back.

However, Badenoch repeatedly declined to say if the Tories would stand a candidate, saying only that the party’s plans would be revealed in due course.

“I don’t need to respond to what is one man’s gimmick. This is a gimmick,” the Tory leader said. “It’s a waste of taxpayers’ money. He doesn’t want to follow due process.”

www.politico.eu/article/kemi-badenoch-nigel-farage-pressure-by-election/

Sadly, I think he'll win anyway, as must he otherwise he wouldn't be putting himself in that position.
As a lone candidate, his win wouldn't prove anything but would remove his opportunity, post-election, to gloat over his rivals and bang on about how "the people have spoken".

Most likely must be the previous Conservative MP for the area, who lost his seat when Farage decided to play with it, at the height of Tory unpopularity.

He was a solid local MP, local man and popular. With the Conservatives gaining on Reform in polls nationally, and if there is disatisfaction with the way Farage is playing games with them, he might stand a chance.

What they probably need to do is find a celebrity kind of candidate to beat him. Obviously it doesn't need to be someone who is already one of them, and it probably won't be

And in other news: A baby has thrown its teddy bear out of the pram.

He's not necessarily right though ... if he has been neglecting his Clacton constituents as many people think, they may decide to return to vote Tory or Restore.

Lowe should really do a deal with the Conservatives to get Farage voted out and no longer an MP.

That shouldn't be allowed. If you resign and trigger a by-election, you should be prohibited from standing for it. Why is that allowed?

Other parties are saying they might not stand in this farce. Best wait until the standards committee to report.

Agree, it should be illegal for him to run again.

Are the parties saying that or is it all speculation and noise?

Which parties are saying they might not stand in this farce?

Green & Lib Dems have no chance in Clacton anyway if it's them. Even Labour have no realistic chance.

Or you should pay for it. He's got plenty of readies.

For once, I agree with her. Not responding to his gimmick would be a good thing.

Strongly agree.

He is just grand-standing.

All he needs to do is be clear about his finances so that the rest of the country can judge whether he is acting on behalf of the country or dodgy billionaires who live abroad. He doesn't even need to stop taking the money. He just needs to provide the relevant information to voters.

Maybe it's finally time for David Van Day 😀

Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali said the Greens stand in "every election", and will make a strategic decision on how the party stands in this by-election.

Count Binface has said that he will be standing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Clacton_by-election

Blimey he hasn't aged well.

This is appalling!!
it’s not a fair vote without the investigation result.

surely that’s a refuse-able situation to allow him to stand again. What’s changed if we haven’t had the investigation result?.
Resign if you want, yes Nigel. But what is a by-election with the same candidate actually FOR, what are we asking the constituents to vote about, if the key issue of potential corruption isn’t actually resolved by election day? Farage should not be allowed to stand while he’s under investigation.

I have such massive respect for Daniel Greenberg and his team having to carry on their work with all this self serving Farage shite going on. Thank you, if any of you ever look here!

We the little people (unlike multimillionaire Whiney Nigel), are now having to pay 250K for the by election

• God knows how much to pay for Greenberg investigation, all necessitated by Farage’s behaviour- but this investigation paused because of this byelection now.. After that, we’ll have to pay another 250K for running the next by-election if and when the Greenberg investigation finds Farage corrupt (which judging by F’s current behaviour seems most likely) and then Farage has to resign as an MP again ..

I thought the Tories already started targetting Clacton a few days ago after the Cottrell article

Which they are fully entitled to do. Given the saviour is being anointed next week you'd think Labour would be more hopeful of winning.