Farage to Resign Seat and Seek Clacton By-Election Amid Gift Probe

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage announced Tuesday that he will resign his seat in the House of Commons and seek re-election in a by-election for the Clacton constituency. Farage said he has done nothing wrong and has not broken the law or misused public money.

He stated that the people of Clacton should judge his actions and described the contest as a people versus the establishment by-election that he will fight to win.

Farage faces a probe by Parliament’s standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg over a £5 million gift from Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne. Farage said the money was a personal gift received before his election and used to fund security.

UK parliamentary rules require newly elected lawmakers to declare gifts worth more than £300 received in the previous 12 months unless the gift could not reasonably be thought to relate to political activities.

Opposition lawmakers are also seeking an investigation into donations from George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto-gambling entrepreneur who served a prison sentence for fraud in the U.S. Reform UK holds eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons. The party won local and regional elections in May 2026 that contributed to the ouster of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

It has lost three consecutive special elections since then, including one to Labour’s Andy Burnham, who is likely to succeed Starmer as prime minister within weeks. Farage is a prominent ally of U.S. President Donald Trump.