UK’s Farage quits, seeks re-election after gift scandal

Nigel Farage, leader of the populist UK Reform Party, said he was standing down to fight again for his place in parliament in what he called a war against an establishment determined to discredit him with accusations about his finances.

After weeks of facing accusations that he failed to properly declare gifts worth millions of pounds from wealthy backers, Farage used a televised announcement on Tuesday to vent his anger at what he described as the “stack” of Britain’s liberal elite.

“I have decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” he said, announcing his decision to resign in 2024 to trigger an election in the southern England region where he was first elected to parliament.

“In this by-election, it will be the people against the establishment,” he said. “This is a chance to put two fingers into the entire organization.”

Over the past few weeks, Farage, 62, has been visibly angered by questions about both his personal finances and his party’s finances, which have led in almost every opinion poll for more than a year.

He is being investigated by parliament’s standards watchdog over a five million pound ($9.6 million) gift from a billionaire crypto investor that critics say was not properly disclosed. No decision has been made in the case yet.

He also said the standards watchdog had launched another investigation into a report that a former aide once convicted in the US for wire fraud had made separate donations.

Farage has denied any impropriety in his financial dealings but his public appearances have tapered off recently after holding almost weekly press conferences and he has complained in recent days that reporters are harassing his family.

When the usually calm Farage stumbled over some of her remarks in a speech, he said he needed additional funds from his supporters for his personal security and that he had given up a well-paying job decades ago to fight for the Brexit cause he believed in.

It was a far cry from his usual media appearances, where the man credited with pushing a referendum on whether Britain should remain in the European Union enjoys denouncing his opponents, often in colorful language.

He said the final straw came when he accused journalists of intruding into his daughter’s private life, even though she had never been interested in politics.

He said Sky News had contacted his family. Sky News said in a statement: “On a single occasion we approached the property in front of the cameras, identified ourselves and the resident chose not to intervene.”

Farage said he would not tolerate his family being intimidated. “So yeah, you might ask, am I angry? I’ve never been this angry in my life.” He repeated: “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

It’s a risky move, but one that has characterized Farage’s political career. He supposedly retired from politics in 2016 when he quit leading an anti-EU party shortly after the Brexit vote, only returning two years later.

By framing the so-called by-election as against the people and the establishment, he could test a strategy that would paint the ruling Labor Party and the Conservatives as elites and himself and Reform as the underdogs ahead of a national election in 2029, a source close to Reform said on condition of anonymity.

“I will fight to win,” he said.

“I will fight to continue the political revolution that the reform started.”