Nigel Farage resigns as the MP for Clacton, triggering a by-election. (Alamy)

2 min read51 min

Farage has triggered a by-election in Clacton after resigning as MP in what he said would be “a people versus the establishment” contest. 

The Reform leader is under investigation by the parliamentary authorities over allegations that he did not correctly report a £5m gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

He is also facing an investigation over undeclared donations from close friend George Cottrell, who has been convicted of fraud in the US.

On the decision to not stand a candidate in the by-election, a Labour party spokesperson said: “Labour’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee, has decided not to stand a candidate in this circus.

Instead, Labour will remain focused on delivering for working people and holding Reform to account. Farage should let the parliamentary investigation into his finances run its course and face the consequences.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also confirmed that her party will not stand a candidate in the by-election.

“We will be standing a candidate in the real by-election, which will follow the standards investigation into Nigel Farage’s fishy finances. We will not be standing a candidate in the fake by-election that Farage is causing 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. Instead, he has been running away from scrutiny. No one is bigger than parliament. We all have to register our interests.

We, the Conservative Party, are very focused on uniting the country around sensible policies.”

The Liberal Democrats have also said they will not stand a candidate in the by-election. Party leader 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 standard’s commissioner has finished his investigation.

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

9 min read18 min

“We don’t see [Nigel Farage], he doesn’t come here,” say a group of dog walkers on a blustery morning on the seafront in Clacton-on-Sea.

On Tuesday, Farage announced that he would resign as MP for Clacton and trigger a by-election in response to growing pressure over his financial backing. He insisted he has done nothing wrong, and described the by-election as “people versus the establishment”. Over the weekend, The Sunday Times revealed that Farage had failed to declare funding from George Cottrell, a convicted criminal involved in crypto gambling.

After the Reform UK leader was elected MP for Clacton in 2024, accusations that he was rarely present in the constituency became a familiar refrain. Farage has consistently dismissed such claims, arguing that the demands of leading a national political party inevitably limit the time he can spend locally compared with most MPs.

Speaking earlier this year, a spokesman for Farage told PoliticsHome: “There are 78,703 registered voters in Clacton. It would be impossible to meet every single one of them. Nigel’s visits are structured to ensure he visits and helps as many community groups, businesses, charities and constituents as possible.”

He does, however, live nearby. In late 2024, his partner, Laurie Ferrari, purchased a detached property in the area for £885,000. The house sits around seven miles up the road in Frinton-on-Sea — “the posh end,” as one Clacton resident describes it.

Last year, Farage denied accusations that he had avoided £44,000 in stamp duty by placing the property in his partner’s name, insisting she bought it with her own funds.

In Spring this year, PoliticsHome visited the constituency, where the MP’s absence was felt by several Clacton residents who told us they were uncertain whether Farage even held constituency surgeries. Nor, they said, were they sure if he had a constituency office at all.

The constituency office is discreetly located on Clacton seafront. Nearby is XO – Greek, a popular restaurant on the seafront owned by Jason Smedley. The restaurant hosted Farage’s election victory party in 2024, and Farage would drop in roughly once a month to catch up over “breakfast and a coffee”.

“The change has been phenomenal,” Smedley said. “Everyone hated him when he first came in, but now everyone is like ‘I love him’. If he’s in here, people flood in to see him and get a picture.”

He admitted he was initially reluctant to host events for Farage but now allowed the local Reform branch to hold meetings there as well.

Sources said that Reform did not want any branding outside the constituency office when it was set up. “At one point I had a big poster which I put in the door, which had got the Reform logo on it – that was taken away. They don’t really want it to be seen.”

Reform said the office location was kept a secret for security reasons. In 2024, Farage himself cited safety concerns when explaining why he did not hold open public meetings with constituents. 

“Do I have an office in Clacton? Yes. Am I allowing the public to flow through the door with their knives in their pockets? No, no I’m not.”

Local government sources said the Reform leader did not hold traditional in-person surgeries, though they had heard of “invitation-only” meetings — including sessions with local business owners. 

“Nigel has held surgeries online”, his spokesperson said.

Farage’s social media showed he had visited a handful of local businesses in the constituency since 2024. The business surgeries held with the editor of the Clacton Gazette were also advertised on social media, the local newspaper and community groups online.

Unusually, when PoliticsHome visited his constituency in the Spring, Farage had the lowest total staff spend of all seven Reform MPs of £150,834.40. Farage has repeatedly insisted that his “personal MP expenses” are null.

According to the official staff register, Farage employed five staff to handle his parliamentary and constituency work. Sources familiar with the set-up said Farage’s parliamentary team in London handled his constituency casework, but there was one full-time caseworker based full-time in the constituency.

“Most of it is done by letter and email to be honest,” they said.

Still, some residents said accessing the MP remained difficult.

A local councillor told PoliticsHome they had occasionally taken on casework on Farage’s behalf. “People in my ward have brought issues to me because they’ve not been able to contact the MP,” they said.

“I wouldn’t know where to contact Nigel Farage,” said Vanessa, who had lived in Clacton for six years and had regular contact with the previous MP, Giles Watling.

Watling himself said constituents still occasionally approached him with problems. “People do feel slightly abandoned,” he said. “If it’s being managed at all, it’s being managed at arm’s length.”

Clacton itself presents the familiar paradox of England’s struggling coastal towns: picturesque seafronts and chronic economic malaise. Once a bustling holiday resort, the town now faces entrenched deprivation, high economic inactivity and a declining high street.

Official figures show that parts of nearby Jaywick — within Farage’s constituency — have been ranked the most deprived neighbourhood in England for four consecutive deprivation indices since 2010.

Economic activity in the wider Clacton constituency is significantly below the national average: roughly 60 per cent of working-age adults are economically active, compared with around 78 per cent across the UK.

The constituency is also unusually old. Nearly a third of residents are aged over 65, giving the area one of the oldest demographic profiles in England. Younger people often leave for work elsewhere, while retirees move in from London and the Home Counties.

These conditions have made it unusually receptive to anti-establishment politics. In 2014 the constituency elected Britain’s first UKIP MP when Douglas Carswell defected from the Conservatives and won the resulting by-election. Two years later nearly 72 per cent of voters backed Brexit.

Earlier this year, PoliticsHome did not have to walk far through the town to spot a Union Jack or St George’s flag cable-tied to a lamppost.

“The town looks more scruffy since he’s been an MP”, remarked Vanessa, who moved to Clacton six years ago. “Since [Farage] has been around here, you’re getting more shops being vacant”. 

“My daughter is thinking of closing her shop now – she only phoned me yesterday to say I’m thinking of giving it up,” said Janet, another Clacton resident. 

Along the high street, empty shopfronts sit beside amusement arcades and fast-food outlets. The town’s landmark pier — refurbished in recent years — remains one of the few clear signs of investment.

“It was on its way there anyway – but I thought [Farage] coming here would have livened it up”, added another resident. 

Rachel Goldsmith, who runs the Old Market Café on the high street, said small businesses were struggling to stay afloat.

“It’s a struggle because everything has doubled,” she says. “I counted the other day, and there’s about 13 empty shops here.”

“Our main post office closed down — it’s now flats.”

Some locals complained that the only new businesses opening are nail bars and barber shops — an issue Reform UK has itself highlighted, claiming many such premises are fronts for money laundering and organised crime.

Farage was also known to frequent The Three Jays pub in Jaywick, described by locals as “his favourite pub”, a short drive from Clacton town centre.

“He’s always in the Three Jays having a drink,” chuckles one constituent.

Inside the pub, GB News played on the main television. Above the bar hangs a sign that reads: “Let’s keep the dumbfuckery to a minimum today.”

Union Jack flags hang in the windows, and the building itself is painted in a shade locals jokingly describe as “Reform blue”.

“That’s no coincidence,” said Rob, a regular who moved to Clacton more than 30 years ago and says he has watched the town steadily deteriorate.

Among the pub’s regulars there was little hesitation in expressing support for Farage. Immigration, empty high streets and a sense of national decline dominate conversation. Many saw the Reform leader as one of the few politicians willing to articulate their frustrations.

Yet some pointed out that the town’s current regeneration projects — including government-funded schemes intended to revive struggling high streets — have little to do with their MP.

The town has been earmarked for £20m through the government’s “Pride of Place” regeneration funding programme, designed to support a ten-year redevelopment strategy.

A Clacton Town Board was established to oversee the initiative. But Farage — who sits on the board — has not attended any meetings since its creation, according to records, occasionally sending a staff member (George Ivil) in his place.

A spokesperson for Farage said: “Nigel has had a private briefing about the town board from council chief executive Ian Davidson, Council leader Mark Stephenson and the chair of the Clacton town board George Kieffer. He is well briefed on everything that is happening and fully supportive of the Love Clacton campaign.”

However, the complaints about abandonment were a common refrain. “The only time you ever sort of see him is if there’s a photo opportunity,” added another local resident. 

Speaking back in the Spring, a spokesperson for Nigel Farage told PoliticsHome: “Nigel Farage is an active Member of Parliament for Clacton and is currently in the constituency as this article is being published.”

They pointed out that he made regular personal donations to charities and good causes, wrote a weekly column for the local newspaper and was the only MP to have ever held a business surgery in the constituency. They also stressed that MRP polls published since the last general election predicted an increased majority for Reform in Clacton.

But the words of some local politicians suggest he’ll be in for a tougher battle this time round than before.

“His excuse always seems to be that he’s the leader of the national party, so therefore he can’t be in the constituency all the time,” said one local councillor.

“But a lot of the time he’s not even in the country.”

5 min read13 min

The work of councils reaches into almost every part of people’s lives.

It is there when a child needs protection, when someone needs care, when a family needs a home, when a road needs repairing, when a library gives someone a quiet place to learn, when a local business needs support, or when a community is hit by crisis.

That is why the new report by the Local Government Association (LGA), LG2040: Forces Shaping Local Government, matters. Published today (Tuesday), it looks ahead to the forces that will shape councils and communities over the next 15 years.

Its message is clear. Unless we act now, the country risks entering the 2030s and 2040s with weaker communities, higher demand for crisis services and a growing gap between what residents need and what councils can deliver.

One warning stands out. The loss of social infrastructure is becoming one of the biggest risks facing the country.

For too long, the places and relationships that hold communities together have been treated as valuable, but only if budgets allow. Libraries, parks, youth centres, leisure facilities, community hubs, sports clubs and shared public spaces cannot be seen as optional extras.

Social infrastructure is the foundation of strong communities. It is the quiet, everyday network that reduces loneliness, supports families, keeps young people engaged and helps older people stay connected. It is often where problems are spotted early, long before they become crises.

When these places disappear, the need does not disappear with them. It shows up in the NHS, in policing, in mental health services, in housing need, in community safety and in rising demand for urgent support. We pay for the loss many times over.

The pressures facing communities are changing. People are living longer. Young people face more insecure prospects. Health inequalities remain deeply rooted in some places. Climate shocks, economic insecurity and falling trust in institutions do not arrive neatly one at a time. They collide.

When they do, the strength of a community’s social fabric often determines whether a challenge is managed early or becomes a crisis.

That is why prevention cannot just be a slogan. It has to mean real places, real services and real relationships.

It is the library that keeps a teenager learning. The park that supports physical and mental health. The community centre that gives an older person somewhere to go. The youth worker who notices when something is wrong.

At its best, local government helps stop people falling through the cracks in the first place. But councils cannot rebuild the foundations of community while being forced to spend more and more of their budgets responding to acute need.

The current model is not sustainable. Councils cannot keep absorbing rising demand for care, children’s services, homelessness support and other urgent help while the funding, flexibility and certainty needed to prevent demand are squeezed.

That means a new settlement for local government.

Councils need sustainable long-term funding so they can plan ahead. They need greater freedom to join up services around residents, rather than work around Whitehall departments. They need the ability to invest in prevention, not just manage crisis. And they need national government to recognise social infrastructure as essential to the country’s resilience.

This should be an urgent priority for any prime minister who wants to improve public services and strengthen communities.

National reform will only work if it is rooted in neighbourhoods, towns and cities, and if councils are treated as partners with the tools to support people earlier.

This is also a significant moment for local government itself. Councils are facing major structural change through local government reorganisation, rising demand, tight budgets and growing expectations from residents. Recent local elections have brought a wider range of political voices into town halls, reflected in the growth of political groups at the LGA.

The LG2040 report is not a prediction of decline. It is a warning that the choices made now will shape the country we become by 2040.

Across the country, councils are already finding new ways to support people earlier, use data better, work with residents and build stronger local partnerships. But local innovation cannot replace national reform.

If we want a country where people feel connected, supported and confident about the future, we have to invest in the places and services that make that possible. We have to stop treating libraries, parks, youth services and community spaces as expendable, and start seeing them as part of how we keep people well, safe and connected.

As I begin my term as Chair of the LGA, I want to champion the role of councils in shaping the future of this country. Local government is not simply there to pick up the pieces when other systems fail. It is where prevention, resilience and trust can be built in people’s everyday lives.

That is the future we should be building towards. And it starts by rebuilding the social fabric of this country.

Cllr Eamon O’Brien is Chair of the Local Government Association