00:00I've thought about it hard and I've decided today, today I will resign as a Member of Parliament for Clacton
00:08-on-Sea, thereby forcing a by-election, which should happen, I hope, in short order.
00:15No, I've decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions. This will be a people
00:23versus the establishment by-election.
00:26Nigel Farage has resigned his Commons seat and intends to seek it again in a by-election.
00:33He says the public should decide his future following scrutiny over financial support he received before entering Parliament.
00:42But the campaign now looks set to be unlike most by-elections because the main political parties are choosing not
00:49to challenge him.
00:50Since he became an MP, Nigel Farage, the leader of reform, formerly sort of UKIP and various other parties, has
00:58been subject to an immense amount of scrutiny, which of course is right and proper for a man in his
01:03position.
01:04His voting record is not particularly good, but that's on the side.
01:06But most especially, there's been a sort of continuing sort of investigation into the five million he got from the
01:13cryptocurrency billionaire, Christopher Harbourn, why he got that and the fact he didn't declare it as a sort of issue.
01:20And more recently, we've had the allegations of somebody called George Cottrell, who also had sort of, well, in fact,
01:25he went to prison in America for issues of sort of fraudulence and his close relationship with sort of Nigel
01:31Farage.
01:31The vacancy means voters will be asked to decide whether to return Mr Farage before the Parliamentary Standards Inquiries have
01:39reached a conclusion.
01:41He denies wrongdoing and says the financial support was personal and received before he became an MP.
01:48The inquiries are paused while the seat is vacant.
01:51They could resume if Mr Farage is re-elected, meaning a win at the ballot box would not necessarily end
01:59the separate parliamentary process.
02:02Now, Farage, of course, has said in his statement, and there were a couple of takeaways from that, most especially,
02:07of course, that he could have done other things with his life and made lots of money.
02:09Well, he seems to be making plenty as it is, but also sort of this level of scrutiny, which, of
02:15course, he doesn't like.
02:16Now, of course, I think it's right and proper for a man in position who potentially, given the opinion polls,
02:20and of course, they sort of wax and wait, could be the next prime minister.
02:23So he's called a by-election.
02:26He's going to fight Clacton again.
02:28The chances are he'll win it.
02:30He could be back in Parliament in not that many weeks, and the investigation continues.
02:36And potentially, of course, he could be subject to what's called a recall notice, where he's suspended from Parliament.
02:40And if it's over 10 days, he then has to fight other by-election, in which case he'll sort of
02:44go back to the voters of Clacton and ask for their support and potentially be elected again.
02:50So it's all a bit of a sideshow.
02:52Sir Keir Starmer has described Mr Farage's move as a desperate stunt, saying the reform leader is up to his
03:00neck in sleaze and he's trying to avoid scrutiny.
03:04Labour has confirmed it will not stand a candidate, saying it will not take part in what it calls a
03:10circus.
03:11Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has also ruled out putting forward a candidate.
03:15She's called it a fake by-election, arguing that the standards investigation should now be allowed to run its course
03:22before any further vote takes place.
03:24It's kind of sideshow, but it's significant nonetheless.
03:28And as I come back to the fact that Farage is one of the most instrumental and important people in
03:34politics in the recent generation, insofar, of course, that he stimulated the debate, which led to the referendum just over
03:4310 years ago where we left the EU.
03:44So whatever was going to happen today, and of course it's kind of adhered to a script, Farage likes to
03:52be in the limelight.
03:53So, of course, it will sort of firmly focus his or the media attention onto him.
03:57And of course, what he has said, which is also very interesting, it's the sort of the people, the voters
04:02of Clacton versus the establishment.
04:04But it's interesting because, of course, the view has always been that Farage, who, of course, was a long time
04:09ago a member of the Conservative Party, really wants to be part of the establishment.
04:13But, of course, they won't let him in because they find him so dangerous.
04:17So, therefore, of course, he fights on the base of these, he's somehow anti-establishment.
04:22He's very much Trumpian in his sort of style.
04:26And, you know, amongst some people, that goes down well.
04:28And, of course, the sort of the message that this reform brings, that they're going to sort of radically change
04:31politics, is one which, of course, people sort of welcome to.
04:34But, of course, that's the very same sort of message that Andy Burnham wants to sort of give.
04:40And in the hope, of course, that it will rescue Labour's fortunes and give them some chance, if you like,
04:45of retaining power at the next general election.
04:47So all this continues and we'll see where it takes us.
04:50Well, we're looking towards the possibility of a very unusual contest with smaller parties and independent candidates expected to provide
04:59the opposition.
05:00Count Binface says he intends to stand and the date has not been fixed.
05:05But the results will be closely watched as a test of Nigel Farage's personal support, while the standards inquiries remain
05:13unresolved.
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