Nigel Farage resigns and vows to fight byelection after pressure over finances

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage announced he will quit as an MP and fight a byelection after coming under intense pressure over unregistered donations of cash and support.

In a video statement, Clacton Farage said: “I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all.”

He accused the media of harassment and vowed to fight a “people versus the establishment” byelection.

The Reform UK leader has faced calls for an investigation following reports that long-term ally George Cottrell had provided undeclared funding for security and staffing in the year before he was elected.

Cottrell reportedly recruited and paid three staff to work on Farage’s social media before the UK general election, and has continued to allow him to use a five-storey Georgian property he rented near Buckingham Palace.

Under the Commons’ rules, new MPs are required to register any gifts worth more than £300 (€351) they received in the previous 12 months, except where the gift “could not be reasonably thought by others” to relate to their political activities.

Farage is already facing a parliamentary standards investigation over a £5 million (€5.8 million) gift from Reform donor Christopher Harborne before becoming an MP.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called for both the Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to investigate the support from Cottrell.

Farage said standards investigations by the parliamentary authorities are “now being used as a political tool”.