Nigel Farage has resigned as the MP for Clacton-on-Sea, only to trigger a by-election in which he intends to stand again.

Why?

In this video, I examine what appears to be an extraordinary political manoeuvre and ask whether it is really about democracy, accountability or something quite different.

I argue that this is an unnecessary election which will cost taxpayers money while doing nothing to change Farage's status as the sitting MP. Instead, I suggest it is an attempt to appeal directly to voters while an investigation into his previous election campaign continues.

I also look at Farage's claim that he has become the victim of media persecution. Is that true, or is this an example of what psychologists describe as DARVO — deny, attack and reverse victim and offender? I explain what that means and why I think it matters.

So, will the voters of Clacton accept this strategy or will they conclude that they are being asked to take part in an election that simply never needed to happen?

As always, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments.

This is the audio version:

This is the transcript:

So, Nigel Farage has resigned. He is no longer the MP for Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, and he's called a by-election, a by-election in which he's going to stand. A by-election that is wholly unnecessary because he aspires to be the MP for Clacton-on-Sea. He is, at this moment, already the MP for Clacton-on-Sea. He is therefore wasting public money in a way which is wholly unnecessary to suit the ego of Nigel Farage. What a surprise. That summarises this man.

In a fit of faux rage, because I don't believe he's really angry at all - this man is a consummate actor - he stands before a pre-recorded camera and issues a statement, and is not subject to press scrutiny on it.

He claims throughout that the press are victimising him. He has undertaken a classic fascist technique. He's done what is called DARVO: deny, attack and reverse victim and offender. D-A-R-V-O. He claims that he is the victim of vicious attacks by the media when, in practice, for over 20 years now, Nigel Farage has been the perpetrator of vicious attacks on people in the UK.

People who are migrants in this country.

People from the EU living in this country.

People who seek quite legitimately to come to this country to seek refuge.

People who have every right to be here and who have lived here under state protection: he has called for attacks upon them.

He's celebrated the attacks on hotels.

He's celebrated the fact that people should be turned away at our shores.

He's called for boats to be reversed in the Channel, irrespective of the risk to human life.

But now, because he claims the media have issued a statement about his daughter, he is furious and has turned on the media itself, claiming he's the victim.

No, he's not the victim. He's the creator of the anger. He is the person who has caused the problem, which has now turned on him.

If the media dislike him, they dislike who Nigel Farage is.

They dislike what he represents.

They dislike the way in which he projects himself.

And his claim that he's an entrepreneur, a man who is most suited, therefore, to be the leader of this country, that was the implication of his claim, and that nobody else in Parliament has his experience is, again, absolute nonsense.

Crypto is not entrepreneurial activity. It may well be a Ponzi scheme, but it's not entrepreneurial activity.

Being a trader in commodities in the City is not entrepreneurial activity. It's working for a bank.

This man is not an entrepreneur. He's a grifter. That's the best thing that we can say about him.

And has he complied with the law as he claims? That is for Parliament and its officers to decide.

The people of Clacton cannot do that, but you can see what he's trying to do. He's going to the people of Clacton and say, “Re-elect me, so I can tell Parliament to back off the fact that I probably did breach the rules before I was elected as a member on 4 July 2024.”

He will not get away with that. If he is re-elected, the inquiry into his election in 2024 will continue. If he had resigned, it would close. But because he's standing for re-election, if he's re-elected, he will face all the same problems as he does now. And if the gifts that he did not declare at that time should have been, Parliament can sanction him in exactly the way they could have done before he resigned.

So Farage is not solving his problems by taking the action he's doing.

What's he trying to do? He's trying to go over the heads of law and order.

He's trying to go over the press.

He's trying to use the parliamentary process for his own gain.

He's trying, and I think this is obvious, to abuse the people of Clacton. I hope they see through him.

He claims he went to Parliament to drain the swamp just as Donald Trump did. In fact, he's flooded the zone. He's flooded the zone with money that he's brought in from overseas to support Reform. He's flooded the zone with his claims about what is going on, none of which can be properly justified by any action that is being witnessed on our shores, in our migrant community, in the refugee system.

He is talking nonsense. He's claiming he's going to reform this country when, in fact, all he wishes to do is shrink the state, expand neoliberalism, and reduce the support for the people of Clacton who are dependent upon that state in a way that very many people aren't because Clacton is one of the poorest communities in the UK.

But he doesn't care about that.

He doesn't care about them.

All he cares about is Nigel Farage, and we saw that very clearly in the announcement that he made. This is all about Nigel Farage seeking to secure attention for himself.

He sounded very unfit. He sounded breathy. He sounded like a man for whom smoking has taken its toll. He sounded like a man who is struggling to breathe. I don't know whether he's, well, I don't really care. That's his issue. He could say so if he wants. I do not wish him ill, but I do not really care what his personal situation is. That does not matter to me.

That he complies with the rules does.

That he does not abuse people does.

That he does not attack those people who have suffered as a consequence of his actions does matter to me.

That he now knows what it's like to be harassed by somebody in power is something which does feel, for me, like justification: justification as a return on the hate that he has spread in this country.

Will Nigel Farage win? I don't know. I'm not sure that the people of Clacton are that amused by having an MP who's abusing them. I'm not sure they're amused by having an MP who has for a long time been absent, who has spent more time in the USA than he has, in practice, spent on the shores of Essex. I'm not sure that they like having a man who doesn't represent them in Parliament. He's hardly voted in the last few months. I'm not sure they want a man who is simply going to abuse them by asking for a vote when a vote is not necessary.

I think he's got a problem. I think he's got a major problem. I made a video saying that the politics of grievance has run out of road. I think Nigel Farage feels that that is probably true. He has run out of road. He has nowhere to go. He's making up false accusations, accusations about the media, who have a job inside a democracy to hold politicians accountable, and he is claiming victimhood when he is the offender.

My hope is the people of Clacton see through him and kick him out of Parliament and end this man's career for good. But let's see what happens. I do not know the future, nor do you. We all have opinions on it. The people of Clacton will provide the verdict here. But in the meantime, there's a lot more to be said about Nigel Farage and his vile politics, his politics of hate, his politics of grievance, his politics of abuse. This man is no innocent victim. This man has spread all those things - hate, victimisation, and pure racism in this country, and I hope he pays a price for it.

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