NIGEL Farage and allies claim he triggered the by-election after concluding he faced a “stitch-up” amid the standards probe into a £5m gift he received from a crypto-billionaire.
Robert Jenrick was once again sent out to defend the Reform UK leader on Thursday, and likened the process to a “kangaroo court”.
Farage has said he will fight in what he billed as a “people versus the establishment” by-election after facing scrutiny over his finances, including the £5 million gift from Christopher Harborne.
However, none of the major parties have agreed to stand against him. Instead, his main competitor is Count Binface, a joke candidate who wears a bin on his head.
The investigation by Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg into the £5m gift has been suspended, but could resume if Farage returns to the Commons as MP for Clacton.
If he is found to have broken the rules and a suspension of more than 10 days is imposed, it could trigger a recall petition and the prospect of Farage losing his seat, forcing a second contest.
While hosting a phone-in on LBC on Thursday, Jenrick spoke with one caller who raised concerns a “political stunt” was taking place and voters would be left lacking support from their MP because “it’s by-election after by-election”.
Jenrick claimed that major parties not taking part but suggesting they would stand in the “next one” – a quip made by Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch – proved there had been a stitch-up.
Jenrick said: “Well, how does she know there’s even going to be another one?
“She’s obviously hoping, planning for there to be one, and so Nigel, not unreasonably, concluded that it’s a bit of a kangaroo court. It’s a stitch up.
“They’re going to call a by-election at some point.”
It comes after Farage attacked Parliament’s Standards Committee, which oversees the commissioner’s work and could impose a sanction if he is found to have broken the rules.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, he said: “There are people on that Standards Committee who will judge me, who have reported me for Islamophobia.
“It is going to be a completely subjective judgment.
“There’s no objectivity in this.”
Farage appeared to confess he had been wrong-footed by the other main Westminster parties boycotting the Clacton by-election, in which his main rival looks set to be comedy candidate Count Binface.
Opponents including Labour and the Tories have dismissed the move as a gimmick to deflect attention away from his financial arrangements.
Asked whether he had considered the prospect of being the only proper candidate, he told the Mail: “No, of course not. Why would they (not contest)? It’s a real election.”
The Reform UK leader maintains he has done nothing wrong and has said the £5m gift from Harborne was personal and did not need to be declared.
New MPs are required to 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.
The Reform UK leader is also facing questions over support provided by convicted criminal George Cottrell after a Sunday Times investigation.
Long-term ally Cottrell reportedly recruited and paid three staff to work on Farage’s social media before the general election, and has continued to allow him to use a five-storey Georgian property he rented near Buckingham Palace.
It comes as The Times revealed images of Cottrell at a far-right protest led by Tommy Robinson in London.
The images show Cottrell at the “Day for Freedom” event in 2018, which had been organised by Robison shortly after he had been banned from Twitter, now X.
Photographs show Cottrell back stage at the event, but through lawyers he denied that he engaged with Robison or changed in support of him “even as a ‘joke’”.
He also denied spending the summer that year with associates of Robinson, and said he “does not recall meeting him besides being present at the same event with numerous other people.”
Cottrell was jailed for eight months in the US in 2017 after pleading guilty to a charge of wire fraud after admitting attempting to defraud criminals on the dark web by masquerading as a money launderer.
Meanwhile, police have opened an investigation into a political donation of nearly £40,000 made to Jenrick’s failed Tory leadership campaign in 2024 amid claims it ultimately came from a foreign source.
Jenrick, who has since defected to Reform, rejected the allegations as “entirely false” and his spokesman said he had provided “detailed records that categorically disproved these smears in 2025” to the Electoral Commission.
