Nigel Farage, the British populist whose anti-immigration party has led polls for the past year, said he was stepping down as a lawmaker amid a growing scandal over his personal finances, but plans to run again for the same seat.
He said he wanted voters to decide his fate in a by-election.
“It’s a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment,” he said, arguing that a probe into donations he received by businessmen was a pretext by Britain’s political establishment to prevent his party from winning a general election.
The unconventional move comes as Farage tries to draw a line under a growing scandal about his personal finances and whether he broke parliamentary rules over the disclosure of donations.
The 62-year-old has come under scrutiny in recent weeks over donations he has received from wealthy supporters in the lead up to the 2024 election. Farage, who is leader of the Reform UK party, received a £5 million donation from a Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne months before making a surprise return to Parliament.
Farage has repeatedly denied he had an obligation to disclose the donation, which he said was a personal gift to pay for his security as a visible and controversial politician. Parliament’s standards commissioner has opened a probe into the donation. House of Commons rules require all new lawmakers to register benefits, including gifts, that they received in the 12 months before their election. “I have done nothing wrong,” he said Tuesday.
The move is yet another shock for Britain’s politics. Farage’s party has been leading the polls for about 15 months—the longest stretch that a party other than the ruling Labour or Conservative parties has been on top for the past century.
Farage easily won a 2024 election in the district of Clacton-on-Sea, eastern England, and would likely stand a good chance of being re-elected. A loss would be a major setback for Reform and a boon to both the Conservatives and Labour.
Farage has a record of quitting politics only to return. He has in the past quit two other parties he created, the UK Independence Party and Reform. The first was formed to help push Britain out of the European Union, and he left it after the 2016 Brexit referendum after infighting with other members.
Farage then returned to form the Brexit Party, to pressure the government for a more complete split from the EU. Having gained that, he then quit Reform, the new name for the Brexit Party, in 2021, saying he had achieved all he could in politics. He returned in 2024, shortly before national elections, citing a historic surge in immigration and saying Britain needed a third party to challenge the Conservatives and Labour.
Reform only has eight members of Parliament but has been leading the polls, with just under 30% support—usually about six or seven points clear of either Labour or the Conservatives.
The scrutiny over Farage’s donations began in late April, when the British press reported the undisclosed donation from Harborne. Farage admitted to receiving the funds but said it was an unconditional gift to fund his personal protection. “I have been attacked again and again, and I am the most physically and verbally attacked public figure or politician of modern times,” he said. He said that in the past year his house had been attacked and that he has faced daily online calls for him to be killed.
Harborne, who has a stake in crypto platform Tether, has also previously donated both directly to Reform and the Brexit Party.
The scrutiny also coincided with a series of disappointing electoral results for Reform. Last month, the party was beaten in a special district election in northern England, where it was trying to block Andy Burnham, the man tipped to be the next prime minister, from entering Parliament. The defeat was read in Westminster as a sign that Reform was losing momentum.
