Nigel Farage is seeking to win back his Clacton-on-Sea parliamentary seat after resigning as an MP in July. Voters in the Essex constituency headed to the polls today to select a new MP from a list of 34 candidates - with Reform UK the only major political party to put someone forward.
Major parties boycott election
The other major parties - including Labour, the Tories, Lib Dems, the Greens and Restore - all decided to boycott the election. As a result, Mr Farage's main contender appeared to emerge as Count Binface, a satirical candidate who last stood in a by-election just a few weeks ago against Andy Burnham in Makerfield.
Reason for resignation
The Reform UK leader quit as an MP in order to trigger the contest in protest at media and parliamentary scrutiny of donations from his backers. He said the by-election would be a "people versus the establishment" showdown, but it has been dismissed by his political rivals as merely a stunt.
Investigation and possible outcome
Ahead of his resignation, Mr Farage was being investigated by the parliamentary standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg over a £5 million gift from cryptocurrency tycoon Christopher Harborne, which he received before taking his seat in the Commons. Under the Commons’ rules, 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.
That investigation was paused when Mr Farage resigned his seat, but will resume if he wins the by-election – as bookmakers have made him the firm favourite to do. If that happens, the outcome of the standards investigation could result in another by-election for Clacton.
The votes will be counted once polls close at 10pm on Thursday. Results are expected to be announced between 5am and 7am.
