Image source, Reform UKNigel Farage did not attend the declaration of the result in Clacton
ByJoshua NevettPolitical reporter
A parliamentary standards investigation into a £5m gift received by Nigel Farage has been reopened following the Reform UK leader’s by-election win in Clacton.
The investigation into an alleged failure to declare an interest was paused after Farage resigned as an MP last month in response to scrutiny of his financial backing, triggering the by-election.
Farage won with 63% of the vote on a turnout of 44% in a highly unusual by-election that was contested by a record 34 candidates but was boycotted by all of the main Westminster parties.
Farage did not show up at the count, telling supporters Essex Police had warned him of an “organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result”.
He told supporters: “I’m damned if I’m going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory, a ringing endorsement of all that I’ve tried to fight for, and you’ve tried to fight for, and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies, and I will not sadly be attending the count.”
Reform UK cancelled what the party had billed as a “major speech” by Farage in Clacton on Friday morning and some scheduled media appearances.
In a statement, the Reform leader said: “The verdict is now in, and it is a convincing, overwhelming win, with more votes than we got in the general election of 2024.
“Today, the voters in Clacton have stuck up two fingers to the entire political establishment.”
Farage received 22,239 votes, 1,014 more than his winning total at the general election in 2024, when he first became the MP for Clacton, and increased his majority from 8,405 to 12,784.
The turnout was about 14% lower than it was in the 2024 general election in the constituency but about average for recent Westminster by-elections.
Before Farage quit his Clacton seat in July, Parliament’s standards watchdog had been investigating him for not declaring a £5m gift he received from billionaire Reform UK donor Christopher Harborne before he became an MP.
Hours after the Clacton result was declared, the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards told the BBC “the investigation is not suspended anymore”.
If the investigation finds Farage has breached parliamentary rules, he could face suspension from the House of Commons and a process that could trigger another by-election in Clacton, potentially forcing him to fight for his seat again.
Opposition parties have been calling for another such investigation into financial support he received from a different political ally, George Cottrell, ahead of the general election in 2024.
Farage framed the by-election as a “people versus the establishment” showdown, saying the “people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions”.
But Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and Restore Britain decided not to stand candidates against him, branding the contest a “gimmick” and a “circus”.
The result was announced on the floor of Clacton Leisure Centre, rather than on a stage, to make sure there was enough space for all the candidates.
With Farage absent, the other candidates lined up as the returning officer spent five minutes declaring how many votes each of them received.
Apart from Farage and Count Binface, all of them lost their £500 deposits because they failed to receive more than 5% of the total valid votes cast.
Count Binface’s 9,455 votes and 26.9% vote share was probably the best by-election performance by a novelty candidate.
In a video on X, external, Count Binface – who is comedian Jonathan Harvey without the costume – said he was the “winning candidate… of the candidates who bothered to turn up”.
He said the result showed “Nigel – who said he didn’t want to be humiliated – maybe has been”.
“Over one in four people in this constituency would rather have Count Binface as their MP than the leader of Reform UK – and I’m just getting started,” Count Binface said.
Labour Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said this was “no victory” for Farage because the “mountain of sleaze and scandal” engulfing him had only grown “while he’s been trying to distract the public by fighting a by-election against a bin”.
The Liberal Democrats said Farage had “come away looking daft” from the by-election and called for the standards investigation into his £5m gift to “crack on”.
The Conservatives said this was a “fake by-election” that had done nothing to “draw a line under the questions” surrounding the £5m gift.
Image source, PAThe by-election was contested by many novelty candidates
The by-election is estimated to have cost taxpayers about £250,000.
Reform UK offered to cover the costs of organising the poll but political parties are barred from doing so to maintain the independence and impartiality of the electoral process.
The record number of candidates also posed practical challenges, such as the need to use large tables to count ballot papers that measured a whopping 90cm in length.
The 34 candidates in Clacton beat the previous record of 26 candidates, set in 2008 at the Haltemprice and Howden by-election, which was triggered and won by Conservative MP Sir David Davis to make a point about civil liberties.
Farage first became an MP at the general election in 2024, winning with a majority of 8,405 and 46% of the vote, on a turnout of 58%.
Farage’s vote share in this by-election, 63.3%, was 17 percentage points higher than in 2024 but lower than the 71.6% received by Sir David in Haltemprice and Howden, which was probably the most similar previous by-election.
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