A by-election in the Essex constituency of Clacton is expected to take place on August 13 after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage formally resigned his seat in Parliament. Reform MP Lee Anderson moved the writ in the House of Commons Thursday morning, triggering the process.
Farage announced he will contest the seat he just vacated, framing the race as a "people versus the establishment" by-election. The move follows increased scrutiny of his personal finances and an ongoing parliamentary investigation.
The standards commissioner is examining whether Farage should have declared a £5 million gift he received before entering Parliament. The money came from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based British cryptocurrency investor and a major Reform donor. The Sunday Times also reported that Farage received support ahead of the 2024 election from George Cottrell, a political ally who was jailed for eight months in the United States in 2017 after pleading guilty to a charge of wire fraud. Farage has denied any wrongdoing.
Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, and Restore Britain have all ruled out fielding candidates against Farage. The Reform leader accused those parties of being "scared" to face him and said their decision not to compete did not make it a "fake" contest.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to block Farage's resignation until the parliamentary investigation concluded. "The people of Clacton deserve the facts first," Davey wrote on X Wednesday.
Reeves posted on X that the by-election was a "farce and a desperate distraction," but said she would not block it. "But if he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won't stop him," she wrote, referring to serial candidate Count Binface, who has also announced plans to stand in the race.
Green MP Hannah Spencer described the upcoming contest in pointed terms. "We get to spend the summer watching Clacton, a farce of a by-election where one of the candidates is a joke character filled with rubbish and the other is Count Binface," she said.
Actor-turned-politician Laurence Fox, leader of the Reclaim Party, and Adham Alkhatip, who leads the Forward Party, have also announced they will stand. Reform UK's Robert Jenrick pushed back against criticism of Farage's decision to call the vote rather than wait for the investigation's outcome. "I don't think you can ever call people cowardly who call by-elections," Jenrick said on an LBC phone-in program.
Under parliamentary rules, an MP who wants to resign must write to the chancellor, who has the power to formally refuse but by convention typically accepts such requests. The August 13 date has not yet been officially confirmed.
