Half Of Brits Think Farage Should Face A Second By-Election

Half of Britons think Nigel Farage should face a second by-election if the Reform leader is found to have broken parliamentary rules, a poll has found.

The move came as the Reform leader faced heightened scrutiny over his finances, particularly a £5 million donation from a crypto-billionaire which he failed to declare to parliament when he became an MP in 2024.

All other major parties refused to stand in the by-election, meaning his main contestant was comedy candidate Count Binface.

Farage comfortably won back his Clacton seat with a majority of 8,500 though he dodge the vote count, claiming he wanted to avoid being “humiliated by nobodies”.

However, his return to the Commons means the parliamentary watchdog has resumed its probe into the donations and political support he has failed to declare in the register of MPs’ interests.

The standards commissioner could recommend Farage has to fight for his seat in another by-election if he is found guilty.

Even so, more than a third (39%) of Brits told More in Common his by-election win was a good result for the Reform leader – compared to 15% who said it was not.

The think tank also discovered 49% of Brits say the Clacton MP should be forced to fight for his seat again, compared to 34% who said he should not.

Most Brits (54%) also said Farage is being treated like any other MP, amid Reform’s insistence that the investigation is “being used as a political tool”.

UK director at More in Common, Luke Tryl, said: “If one of Farage’s aims in calling this by-election was to motivate supporters and project confidence, it seems to have proven quite successful: Britons tend to think that the result was a victory for Farage, and among Reform’s own voters four in five say that it was a good result for him.

“Yet the public are less aligned with Farage’s hopes that winning the support of the people of Clacton might put the donations row to bed. If Farage is seen to have broken the rules, Britons tend to say he should face a second by-election. Beyond Reform’s own supporters, few think that this by-election lets him off the hook, or that he is being unfairly targeted.

“So while it seems the public see Clacton as a victory for Reform, most don’t see it as a vindication of Farage’s position on the finance row.”

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