Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey calls for Nigel Farage to fund the Clacton by-election himself.

He says: "Nigel Farage has spent his whole life dodging responsibility for his actions. This new stunt is his latest attempt to escape consequences for his biggest grift."

Davey says the Reform leader has "done nothing for his constituents" and the people of Clacton "deserve better".

“It would be a crime to waste taxpayers’ hard-earned cash on this Farage vanity project.

"He should pay for it himself out of the millions he’s grifted.”

Joe Pike
Political correspondent

Nigel Farage will be contesting the Clacton seat 30 years after he first stood in a by-election. In Eastleigh in 1994, he stood for UKIP and came fourth behind the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives.

This will be the ninth time Farage has fought a Westminster seat: he lost seven times before his victory in Clacton in 2024.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

Nigel Farage’s arch rival Rupert Lowe wastes no time in attacking the Reform UK leader’s by-election announcement.

Lowe formed his own party, Restore Britain, after a spectacular falling out with Farage and is proving to be a persistent thorn in Reform’s side.

In a post on X, Lowe says: "The people of Clacton do not need a media circus descending on their town over a busy tourist season because their MP has made a series of bad decisions.

"He should have declared that five million pounds. He knows it. We all know it. Now he is going to weaponise a by-election to distract from that."

Lowe adds: "I will be making an announcement later today about Restore Britain’s plans for the Clacton by-election."

Image source, PA Media

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has responded to Farage's announcement, arguing the Reform UK leader "is a grifter".

In a post on X, he says Farage "knew he was heading towards a by-election anyway so has pulled the trigger early".

Polanski adds: "The people Vs the establishment?! Reform are literally part of the establishment."

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards opened an investigation into the Reform UK leader in May, for allegedly failing to properly declare a £5m donation. The commissioner can refer a case to the Commons' Standards Committee, which can trigger a by-election in an MP's constituency.

Watch for response from Reform's rivalspublished at 14:57 BST

14:57 BST

Chris Mason
Political editor

What's going to be really interesting in terms of the coming battle is the response of Reform's rivals.

If we rewind the clock at 18 years, Conservative MP David Davis voluntarily triggered a by-election in his constituency over an argument that he was making about civil liberties, which he felt were being trodden on by the then Labour government.

That decision took quite a lot of Conservatives by surprise and plenty of the big other parties didn't contest that by-election.

They didn't want to play into the self-delivery of theatre, as they saw it, that Davis chose to engineer.

So let's see, the best part of two decades on, how the Conservatives and Labour and others choose to approach this.

Farage is framing by-election as the people v the establishmentpublished at 14:51 BST

14:51 BST

Chris Mason
Political editor

That's how Nigel Farage is trying to seize the initiative and the momentum, if you like, of having his back against the wall with all of the revelations relating to his finances.

On top of that, you could hear the anger - and it is authentic anger - about what he sees as the unreasonable encroachment on his family as a result of the swirl of media attention.

We were several steps from it, but a by-election was already being talked about at Westminster as one potential outcome of the investigation under way by the parliamentary standards commissioner into Farage's £5m gift.

One scenario down the track after the investigation's findings were released could have been a recall petition and potentially a by-election.

We've seen that in the past where MPs find themselves in that situation against their will.

Here is Nigel Farage seizing the moment and the initiative and saying that he'll press ahead with that by-election and framing it, as he so often does, as a tussle between the people and elements of the establishment.

Investigations into Farage would begin again if he wins by-electionpublished at 14:41 BST

14:41 BST

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

It is worth stating that if Nigel Farage were to win this Clacton by-election, investigations into him will resume. That is what Parliament's rules are.

So Farage isn't forcing this by-election in order to stop that investigation ever happening, he is doing it in order to appeal to a higher political authority than the House of Commons standards commissioner.

He is arguing: "I derive my mandate from the voters of Clacton."

It is a bold political gambit, and it could well determine the question of who has the opportunity to become Britain's prime minister at the next general election.

A very significant announcementpublished at 14:35 BST

14:35 BST

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

That is a very, very significant announcement.

Nigel Farage will very shortly no longer be an MP, but he intends to continue in his role by asking his constituency to re-elect him.

After many failed attempts, Clacton made Farage a Member of Parliament in the 2024 general election.

Farage's statement has now finished - but we're still working through the details and will bring you analysis on his announcement.

Stay with us.

Farage says he "will resign as a Member of Parliament for Clacton-on-Sea, thereby forcing a by-election".

"I've decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions," he says.

He adds: "And that is why I will be putting my name forward to stand in this by-election. I will fight to win. I will fight to continue the political revolution that Reform has started."

He calls it a "people versus the establishment" by-election.

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

We'll bring you more on this shortly.

Farage says that the Sunday Times report published at the weekend is "wholly inaccurate".

He has also alleged that the investigation into him by the parliamentary standards watchdog is "being used as a political tool".

Farage says that the £5m gift from Christopher Harborne at the centre of one investigation will fund the security he believes he needs for the rest of his life. "I am the most physically and verbally attacked public figure or politician of modern times," he says.

Nigel Farage says he has done "nothing wrong" and has not "broken the law in any way at all".

He says over the last 10 years he has been writing, lecturing, broadcasting and investing. Farage says that he has "financially done well" adding "making money is not a crime".

We will bring you more from his statement soon.

Image source, Reform UK

Nigel Farage's video statement has now started.

You can watch live at the top of the page.

Nigel Farage will shortly make a statement on his "future in public life".

We'll be listening for key lines and will bring you updates here.

You can also tap watch live above to follow along at home.

The address is being broadcast directly by Reform UK on its YouTube channel and will be carried by the BBC. Members of the media, including from the BBC, will not be present to put questions to Farage.

We don't know what Farage will say, but the context is clearpublished at 13:57 BST

13:57 BST

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

It is unclear what Farage will say, and that is likely to be the case until he starts speaking.

The context, though, is clear — months of scrutiny, which has intensified in recent days, about gifts and support he received in the year before becoming an MP in 2024.

The parliamentary standards watchdog is investigating whether Farage should have declared a £5 million gift he received from the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.

After a Sunday Times investigation, that could be expanded to assess whether he should have declared support provided by George Cottrell, who was jailed for fraud in the US in 2017.

Farage has consistently denied wrongdoing in both cases, arguing that what he received from both men was unrelated to his political activity with Reform.

In recent weeks Farage has displayed extreme displeasure at facing questions from the media about these cases, as well as the manner in which he has been asked to comment.

Image source, PA Media

Yesterday, Nigel Farage accused Sky News of harassing his family during its coverage of his finances.

The Reform UK leader was returning from Independence Day celebrations in the US when a reporter for the outlet asked if it had been a mistake not to declare gifts from George Cottrell.

Farage did not directly answer the question, instead telling the reporter that if Sky News "harass my family any more" there would be "serious consequences".

In a subsequent broadcast, the channel said it "has not contacted anyone from Nigel Farage's family about this story" - which Farage later described on X as an "outright lie".

"They hounded my daughter at home, just days after The Times published where my family live," he wrote on X Monday.

"Despicable behaviour from the media."

The George Cottrell allegations (see our previous post) are not the only questions Nigel Farage is facing about his finances.

Since May, he has been under investigation by Parliament's standards commissioner for not declaring a £5m gift he received from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based British cryptocurrency investor, before his election.

Farage has argued the gift was "personal", and for his security. He has said he did not need to declare it because he received it before he was elected as Clacton MP, and it was not political.

Asked by BBC Breakfast last month how much of the £5m he had spent on security, he said: "No, I'm not going to answer that deliberately, wilfully.

"It's not your business at the BBC to put me in danger therefore I will not answer it."

Image source, Getty Images

Nigel Farage is facing various questions about his finances.

The latest came at the weekend, when the Sunday Times accused him of not properly declaring support from George Cottrell - a long-time ally who was jailed for fraud in the US in 2017.

The newspaper reported that Cottrell's support included paying for Farage's security, and staff who worked on his social media content, in the year before his election.

Farage also reportedly used a property near Buckingham Palace rented by Cottrell.

The Reform UK leader insists he has "followed the rules", claims he is the victim of an "establishment hit job", and says he is considering legal action against the paper.

Farage has been referred to the parliamentary standards commissioner by Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde.

Under parliamentary rules, new MPs must declare financial interests and "registrable benefits" received in the 12 months before their election.

The guidelines say purely personal gifts or benefits do not need to be registered.

When he became an MP, Farage registered a £9,253 trip to Belgium in April 2024 donated by Cottrell, and later added a £15,276 donation from Cottrell for a US domestic flight he provided in December 2024.

No other support from Cottrell is listed in the Register of Members' Financial Interests., external

For a man who could be PM, this is what scrutiny looks likepublished at 13:22 BST

13:22 BST

Chris Mason
Political editor

Once again, the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is in the news and at the heart of the headlines are power, transparency and money.

Vast amounts of money, in the view of his critics far too little transparency, and a party that opinion polls suggest is the favourite to win power at the next general election.

The ongoing swirl of stories about Farage has put him on the back foot – he has been much less visible in front of the cameras and has come across as uncomfortable, even irritable, at the questions thrown his way as a result.

His argument is none of this relates to taxpayers' money and it collectively amounts to ongoing attempts to undermine both him and Reform UK.

But it does relate to huge quantities of money and big questions about what that money can buy – particularly given the connections to cryptocurrency and Farage's long standing desire to liberalise the UK's approach to digital currencies.

The Reform leader has long argued his views on crypto are long standing and gifts buy nothing in terms of influence.

In truth, all of this is what scrutiny looks like when you are a candidate for prime minister, as Nigel Farage is.

And for the first time in a long time, Reform's political rivals spot a party encountering turbulence.

• Read Chris Mason's full piece here