Trump ally Nigel Farage wins special election to return to UK parliament
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Nigel Farage, leader of Britain's right-wing Reform UK party, has won re-election to parliament in a vote he triggered himself last month by stepping down amid controversy over his finances.
Farage, who has previously been praised by U.S. President Donald Trump and was a figurehead in the U.K. campaign to leave the European Union, faces a parliamentary investigation over failure to declare a £5 million ($6.7 million) donation from a Thailand-based crypto investor ahead of his 2024 election.
The probe was suspended following his resignation on July 7, and was relisted as active on Friday following the election result. Farage has said the gift was a personal gift intended to contribute to his security costs.
Reform UK faces a police investigation related to "impermissible" party donations, the BBC reports .
Mainstream parties said they would boycott standing in the byelection after Farage sought to position it as a referendum on his fight against "the establishment." That meant his main opponent was costumed, serial candidate "Count Binface," who came second.
Farage did not attend the vote count overnight, instead speaking with supporters at an event elsewhere in the constituency.
The Essex seat of Clacton has a track record of backing Farage's political parties. The UK Independence Party's won its first election there in 2014, when it was led by Farage.
"I'm damned if I'm going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory, a ringing endorsement of all I've tried to fight for... and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies," he told a crowd.
Though long a well-known figure in British politics, Farage was elected to parliament for the first time in 2024. Reform UK emerged in 2021 from Farage's previous Brexit Party, expanding its platform to a tougher stance on immigration and visa rules, scrapping climate targets and cutting some taxes.
The party has gained ground at a time when the U.K.'s two main political parties, Labour and the Conservatives, have struggled in the polls, providing momentum to alternatives, including the Green Party.
The governing Labour party suffered bad results in local elections in May, though polls suggest the party has become more popular since the installation of Andy Burnham as prime minister in July following the ouster of Keir Starmer.
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