Less Than A Quarter Of Brits Support Farage By-Election Move

Less than quarter of Brits support Nigel Farage’s decision to trigger a by-election in Clacton, according to a poll.

YouGov found just 24% of 7,744 respondents support the Reform UK leader’s attempt to call a “people versus the establishment” contest.

Meanwhile, 43% oppose Farage for standing down as Clacton MP and then standing for re-election.

The findings are a blow to the Reform leader, who is already facing humiliation after the only other candidate who said they would take part in the by-election is Count Binface.

Farage has been under intense scrutiny since it emerged in April that he received a £5 million gift from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne before he ran to be an MP in 2024.

He is now facing a sleaze probe into whether that huge lump sum should have been declared to parliament.

If found guilty he could be suspended from the Commons – potentially triggering a second by-election later in the year.

Parliamentary commissioner for standards Daniel Greenberg has been encouraged to launch a second probe into the financial support Farage accepted from convicted criminal George Cottrell before he joined parliament.

New MPs must register any gifts worth more than £300 they received in the previous 12 months, except where the gift “could not be reasonably thought by others” to relate to their political activities, according to parliamentary rules.

Farage has denied any wrongdoing and claimed he is the victim of “an establishment hit job”.

YouGov also found 60% of Brits think Farage has not been honest about his finances while just 12% think he has.

Among Reform’s 2024 voters, 40% said they think he has been honest while 22% think he has not been.

It currently looks like Farage will only be fighting against comedy candidate Count Binface after Labour, the Tories, the Green Party, Restore Britain and the Lib Dems have all chosen not to field their own representatives.

PM Keir Starmer dismissed the contest as a “circus” while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called it a “fake” by-election and a distraction.

The Lib Dems’ Ed Davey called on all parties to “refuse to give oxygen to Farage’s vanity project”.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “This is a desperate stunt from a desperate politician whose lifetime of grifting is finally catching up with him. Greens will play no part in his political circus.”

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.