Read Nigel Farage’s speech in full as Reform leader resigns as MP

A furious Nigel Farage has announced he will quit as an MP and fight a by-election after coming under intense pressure over unregistered donations of cash and support.

In a video statement, Clacton MP Mr Farage said: “I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all.”

The Reform UK leader accused the media of harassment and vowed to fight a “people versus the establishment” by-election.

The Reform UK leader has faced calls for an investigation following reports that long-term ally George Cottrell had provided undeclared funding for security and staffing in the year before he was elected.

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, very proud. That evening, going into the morning of July the 5th, 2024, to be the elected member for Clacton-on-Sea.

I was very proud of that evening, and 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, genuinely adore.

I couldn't have believed that night that we'd have rocketed to the top of the opinion polls, and now we've 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 by us 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, well, not just the media, the other political parties too, let me be absolutely clear, I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money, and you know, for the first two years of being an MP, my personal MP expenses are zero.

Not of course that you'll read about that in mainstream media. And yes, of course, Parliament has its rules about how members ought to behave, and I believe I've absolutely obeyed those rules and done so under getting good legal advice. The standard 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 personal lives. Though it would seem from the last couple of years, from the way I've been treated, that the press would rather our 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, severe skepticism. Making money is not a crime. Now, going back to the '90s, I was in the commodity markets. I had a very, very good high-earning career. I gave that up at a huge cost. Being a member of the European Parliament for 20 years cost me a huge amount of money, but I did it because I had a goal.

I had a goal and a belief that we should leave the European Union, get back to being a self-regulating nation that makes its own laws, charts its own destiny, and among other things, of course, controls its own borders. We might not yet, 10 years on, 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 at the end of that 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 promoted one or two financial products, and for those that followed me into them, they've more than doubled their money, which I'm pleased about.

I also worked extensively in those years of 2021 to 2024 as an influencer with over seven million followers on social media. So yes, over the last 10 years, I have financially done well, but that of itself 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 that and the details of that in just a second.

The really big question that 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 we absolutely need 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 even going to have half a chance of turning around the dire economic state this country now finds itself in. Contrast that with a cabinet, 24 men and women, not one of whom has any serious experience of private business, who frankly haven't got a clue, so don't be surprised that in economic terms we are going down the drain.

Now, Standards 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 that he despises me, and despite the fact that many of the things that were written in the 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 much bigger reason why I'm gonna need that money, and it's simply this. For over 20 years now, I have been subject to constant demonization by the press.

For daring to be outside the consensual 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. Yes, you will know of 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 number of times that 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 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 even bother with an insurance claim. I did everything I could not to make it public. But these are the kind of things that I've had to put up with over many, many years. And over the last year, it's got 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, that doesn'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 elected politics, between 2021 and 2024, I ran up personally very, 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 tell you how grateful I am to Christopher Harbourne, because now I will never, ever need to worry about whether I've got the resource.

Well, 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 on election addresses or anything like that. I've 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 years ago, an inquiry that sought to bring better balance between what the press could do and families of those in [00:10:00] public life. Worse still, she now has broadcasters haranguing her.

Sky News were one of them, and when I questioned them on it, they willfully and deliberately lied and said on their channel, that they hadn't contacted the family. Well, let me be clear. I will not tolerate intimidation of my family. I will not tolerate the location of 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?

Well, I've never been angrier in my life I'm also pretty upset with the behavior of this Labour government. They began in 2025, and then tried again into 2026, to cancel elections for taxpayers. Um, and to do so [00:11:00] on a vast and epic scale, albeit with the connivance of the Conservative Party. Why? Well, of course, fear of Reform.

I'm proud of the fact that we fought a legal action that got nearly five million council tax voters the right to go out on May the 7th and give their view. Now, of course, they want to reduce the a- 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. Extraordinary. These are men who've gone off as entrepreneurs around the world as, and succeeded. The sort of people we used to admire over 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 is 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 now seem to have been awarded the most extraordinary government contracts.

Perhaps Dominic Cummings was right last year when he said Whitehall will break the law to stop Reform winning power. And 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 [00:13:00] agencies. And this is all, of course, a great distraction because 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 happens, the boats continue to cross the English Channel. Our fractured defenses make us look weaker and weaker against what I think is now an increasingly dangerous Vladimir Putin.

Business confidence is the lowest it's now 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, and the public know it, and 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 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've thought about it hard, and I've decided today, today I will resign as a 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, [00:15:00] 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 old parties, get the type of fundamental change that we need to fix broken Britain. Thank you.