LONDON (AP) — Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says he’ll quit as a lawmaker and seek re-election to clear his name over financial allegations.
Farage said Tuesday he will resign from his seat in Parliament, triggering a special election in which he will run. He said in a broadcast statement that “I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money.”
Farage is facing a probe by Parliament’s standards watchdog over a 5 million pound ($6.7 million) gift from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Opposition lawmakers are seeking another investigation over donations from George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto-gambling entrepreneur who served a prison sentence for fraud in the U.S.
No independent journalists were invited to film the announcement or ask questions.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
LONDON (AP) — Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says he will make a statement about his future on Tuesday as he faces questions over financial donations from a cryptocurrency billionaire and a convicted fraudster.
Farage, a prominent British ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, posted on X that “I will make a statement on my future in public life at 2 p.m." He gave no other details.
Farage is facing a probe by Parliament’s standards watchdog over a 5 million pound ($6.7 million) gift from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Opposition lawmakers are seeking another investigation over donations from George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto-gambling entrepreneur who served a prison sentence for fraud in the U.S.
Farage denies wrongdoing. But the scrutiny of his finances has spurred speculation about the future of a politician some considered the favorite to be prime minister after the next national election.
Farage’s anti-immigration party has only eight of the 650 lawmakers in the House of Commons but consistently leads opinion polls over the governing Labour Party and the main opposition Conservatives.
Reform UK was the big winner in local and regional elections in May that triggered the ouster of Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the hands of his own Labour Party.
But Farage's party has lost three consecutive special elections that it hoped to win, a possible sign its support may be sagging. The most recent loss was to Labour’s Andy Burnham, who is likely to succeed Starmer as prime minister within weeks.
Parliamentary standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg is investigating the donation to Farage from Christopher Harborne, a British businessman based in Thailand. Farage says the money was a personal gift that he used to fund security and came before he was elected to the House of Commons.
If Farage is found to have breached the rules, he could be suspended from Parliament. A suspension of 10 days or more would allow voters in his Clacton constituency in eastern England to trigger a special election for the seat.
It would be a serious blow to a party whose rise has echoes of Trump’s nationalist, anti-immigration playbook. Farage has capitalized on — critics say stoked — concerns about migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, which he has called an invasion.
