Clacton by-election LIVE results and reaction as Nigel Farage seeks to win back seat

Within days of Mr Farage’s resignation and declaration of intent to stand again, Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and Restore Britain all ruled out contesting the by-election.

A party spokesperson said Labour ‘will remain focused on delivering for working people and holding Reform to account’.

They added: “Farage should let the parliamentary investigation into his finances run its course and face the consequences.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Farage of triggering a ‘fake’ by-election ‘to distract people from what is happening’

“The best thing for him to have done would have been to call a press conference and explain what he did with the money, apologise if needs be, and that would have been the end of it,” she added. “Instead, he has been running away from scrutiny. No one is bigger than Parliament. We all have to register our interests.

The leader of the Lib Dems, Ed Davey, said: “If this by-election does go ahead now, we are calling on all parties to stand aside and refuse to give oxygen to Farage’s vanity project.”

Davey also went further in calling on the government to block the election until the parliamentary standards commissioner has finished his investigation.

“The people of Clacton should have all the facts before they cast their votes,” he declared.

Rupert Lowe, leader of Restore Britain, said his party would not stand a candidate in the “unnecessary sham”.

The Green Party are also not standing, and said “we have no intention of helping to legitimise a by-election that appears designed not to serve local residents but to serve Nigel Farage’s personal political ambitions”.