Read: Nigel Farage’s full statement on his future

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has announced he will resign as MP for Clacton-on-Sea, triggering a by-election in the seaside constituency.

You can read the full statement below:

Full statement

Two years ago, after several years out of politics, I decided to return to the front line. I have to say, there was some reluctance. And initially I’d thought when Rishi Sunak called a snap election that it would be beyond me. But I did it. And I was very proud, that evening, going into the morning of July 5th 2024, to be elected member for Clacton on Sea.

I have to say, the last two years, I’ve really enjoyed the job of being an MP. The people, the constituency: it’s an office that I genuinely adore. I wouldn’t have believed that night that by today we’d have rocketed to the top of the opinion polls, and that we’ve now been number one for the last 350 opinion polls in a row, often with big leads. We’ve also built the biggest membership of any political party in the country.

And of course on May the 7th, just gone, we achieved some huge successes in the local elections. Not only did we achieve breakthroughs in Scotland and in Wales, but we absolutely dominated in the Midlands and the North, the old Labour heartlands – and that is why Keir Starmer is now on his way out. Not to forget that in East Anglia, the Conservatives have now been reduced to nothing more than a rump.

It seems to me that the Establishment have now decided that they can’t beat us fairly, so they’ve chosen to use foul means. Let me be absolutely clear, after the furore and the media pile on: I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way. I have not misused public money. And for the first two years of being an MP, my personal MP expenses have been zero. Not, of course, that you’ll read about that in the mainstream media.

And yes, of course, Parliament has its rules about how members ought to behave. I believe I’ve absolutely obeyed those rules, and done so after getting legal advice. The standards rules are clear. This is what they say: “The Code applies to Members in all aspects of their public life. It does not seek to regulate what Members do in their purely private and personal lives.”

It would seem from the last couple of years, that the press would prefer that members of Parliament had no assets, and no wealth at all. They seem to fundamentally object to any MP that has outside income. Indeed, they view those that have continuing business interests with severe scepticism. But making money is not a crime.

Now, going back to the 90s, I was in the commodities markets. I had a very very good, high-earning career. I gave that up to be a member of the European Parliament for 20 years. It cost me a huge amount of money. But I did it because I had a goal. A goal, and a belief that we should leave the European Union. Get back to being a self-governing nation that makes its own laws, charts its own destiny, and, among other things of course, controls its own borders.

We might not, 10 years on from the referendum, have reaped as many of the benefits as we ought, but one day I believe we will. And let’s be frank: if I hadn’t done what I’d done, there would have been no referendum. There would have been no Brexit.

I came out of the end of that work with very little money indeed. But over the last 10 years, I’ve been writing, I’ve been lecturing, I’ve been broadcasting, I’ve been investing, I’ve promoted one or two financial products. I also worked extensively in the years between 2021 and 2024 as an influencer with over 7 million followers on social media.

So yes, over the last 10 years I have done well financially. But that should not be looked upon as a crime. And yes, I had the equivalent of a lottery win, a large, personal gift. And I’ll come to the details of that in just a second. But the really big question I want to pose is: do we want leaders that know how to make money? Do we want leaders that have run businesses, employed people, and understand how the world works?

Well, I’m going to argue today that we absolutely do. Successful people from all walks of life, but particularly from business and industry. We need them not just in parliament, we need them in government if we’re going to have half a chance of turning round the dire economic state this country now finds itself in. Contrast that with today’s cabinet, 24 men and women, not one of whom has any serious experience of private business. Who frankly haven’t got a clue. It’s no surprise that in economic terms, the country is going down the drain.

Now, the standards commissioner investigating me over the gift has now reared its head again as a result of a lot of copy in this week’s Sunday Times – incidentally, written by a journalist who publicly says he despises me. And despite the fact that many of the things that were written in that article were wholly inaccurate or indeed irrelevant, yet another standards investigation is underway. Standards are now being used as a political tool.

On the gift: it was given to me on an unconditional basis. I can do with that money exactly as I wish. But there is a big reason I’m going to need that money, and it’s simply this.

For over 20 years now, I have been subject to constant demonisation by the press for daring to be outside the consensus view on many issues. I’ve been attacked again and again. And I am the most physically and verbally attacked public figure or politician of modern times.

You’ll know some of the incidents. Milkshakes thrown in my face, placards bashed over my head. But let me promise you: you only know about a fraction of the times I’ve been assaulted.

One little example you’ve probably never heard of: it was a Sunday afternoon a few years ago in the local village pub. In come the mob, about 50 of them. We decided that the safest thing to do was as quickly as possible to get into the car and to drive away. But the mob surrounded the car, banging on the bonnet and the windscreen, kicking the side of the doors. It was a genuinely dangerous and terrifying situation to be in. The car was written off.

I didn’t bother with an insurance claim. I did everything I could not to make it public. But this is the kind of thing I’ve had to put up with over many, many years. And over the last year, it’s gotten worse, with an attack on my home very similar to the one that the Prime Minister suffered. And literally daily online calls for me to be murdered.

For some reason, these don’t seem to worry the police. Repeatedly, over the years, I asked the Home Secretary for help. I was rejected again and again. And in that period when I wasn’t in politics, between 2021 and 2024, I ran up very substantial bills to make sure that I was safe.

When I became an MP, Parliament said: “Yes, we will help you with security”. But almost unbelievably, just a couple of days after the murder of Charlie Kirk, 70% of that security funding was withdrawn.

I am going to need security for the rest of my life. And I cannot even begin to tell you how grateful I am to Christopher Harborne, because now I will never need to worry about whether I’ve got the resources to pay for it.

But the new attack from the media is that somehow, I am a crook. I am dishonest. Yet another reason to hate me. Commentators over the weekend have said “Oh, look at the interviews Nigel’s doing. He’s not himself. He’s getting angry”. Well, here’s why.

For some reason, last week, the editor of the Times newspaper decided to publish a picture of where my daughter lives. There is no public interest in my daughter whatsoever. She is not involved in current affairs, doesn’t seek to be involved in current affairs, and has never been used by me once, at any point, in my political career. No photographs, no election addresses, or anything like that. I have always done my absolute best to protect the privacy and safety of my family.

By publishing that photograph, the editor of the Times has directly threatened her security. I wonder what happened to the Leveson Inquiry of a few years ago, an Inquiry that sought to bring better balance between what the press could do, and families of those in public life.

Worse still, my daughter now has broadcasters haranguing her. Sky News were one of them. And when I questioned them on it, they wilfully and deliberately lived, and said on their channel that they hadn’t contacted my family.

Well, let me be clear. I will not tolerate intimidation of my family. I will not tolerate the locations where they live being revealed. I will not tolerate any of my family being endangered because of what I choose to do in public life. So yes, you can ask: “am I angry”: I’ve never been angrier in my life.

I’m also pretty upset with the behaviour of this Labour government. They began in 2025, and then tried again in 2026, to cancel elections for taxpayers. To do so on a vast and epic scale, with the connivance of the Conservative party. Why? Well, of course, fear of Reform. I am proud of the fact that we fought a legal action that got nearly 5 million council tax voters the right to go out on May 7th and give their view.

Now, of course, Labour wants to reduce the voting age down to 16. Again, they think that will help damage Reform. And just a couple of weeks ago, following the Makerfield by-election, they changed the voting rules for the Manchester Mayoral by-election. They’ve gone away from first past the post, again for fear that Reform might win.

And now they’ve come after our money. Now, to be clear, in the early days after the last General Election, it was the huge increase in our membership at £25 a time that actually got us into a position where we could build a proper party. Over the last year, some big donors have been attracted to us. It’s extraordinary: these are men who have gone off as entrepreneurs around the world and succeeded. The sort of men we admired for centuries. Now Government ministers refer to them in Parliament as malign actors. And so they keep changing all the rules, again and again, just to stop Reform. Frankly, it’s like living in a Communist country. I could never have believed such a thing would happen here.

Ignore the fact, of course, that over decades peerages have been given to donors, and that Labour’s donors in the run-up to the 2024 General Election seem to have been awarded the most extraordinary government contracts.

Perhaps Dominic Cummings was right when he said Whitehall will break the law to stop Reform winning power. We’ve been subject, in the last few months, to the use of illegally obtained information. Firm evidence of computer hacking. And now leaks from government agencies.

And this is all of course a great distraction. We’re about to get a Prime Minister who’s coming in with no mandate whatsoever. He didn’t even stand on the 2024 manifesto. This country needs a General Election, even if Labour, the Conservatives and the media don’t want it.

And whilst this pile-on against Reform continues, the boats continue to cross the English Channel. Our fractured defences look weaker and weaker against what I think is now an increasingly dangerous Vladimir Putin. Business confidence is the lowest it’s been for 16 years. And I speak to you from a capital city where men can’t wear watches and women can’t wear jewelry on the street. Britain is broken. The public know it. We need change.

Now, the issue with my daughter was the final straw. Enough is enough. And I thought, over the weekend: what shall I do? I could go out, and try and make some real big money. I could go to the USA, where I’ve got plenty of offers. And then I thought: why should I be judged today, or in history in the future, by the Sky News and their ilk? Why should they be the people that decide my fate when, as I repeat, I’ve done nothing wrong?

I thought about it hard, and I’ve decided today. Today, I will resign as Member of Parliament for Clacton on Sea, thereby forcing a by-election, which should happen, I hope, in short order.

No, I’ve decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions. This will be a people versus the Establishment by-election. It’s a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire Establishment. To frankly tell them where to go. And that is why I will be putting my name forward to stand in this by-election.

I will fight to win. I will fight to continue the political revolution that Reform has started. And I would say this to you, the voters of Clacton: If I win, you win. Because if I lose, they win. And we will never, with the two parties, get the type of fundamental change that we need to fix Broken Britain.

Now read: Nigel Farage resigns as MP and calls for by-election