Farage wants to “stick it to the man” – it may not work

This article first appeared as part of Rachel Sylvester on politics, a new weekly newsletter sharing insight on what’s happening in Westminster, Whitehall and beyond. To sign up, click here.

When Nigel Farage announced earlier today that he would resign as an MP and force a byelection in his Clacton seat, he said it would be a “people versus the establishment” vote. “It’s a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment,” he told voters in the constituency. “If I win, you win, if I lose they win.” 

Farage presented himself as the victim of an establishment plot, claiming standards inquiries were being used as a “political tool” and it was like living in a “Communist country” where the rules are bent to the will of the governing class. “The establishment have now decided that they can’t beat us fairly, so they have decided to use foul means,” he declared in his video statement. 

It was utter nonsense of course. Farage wants to “stick it to the man”, as Jack Black’s character says in the film School of Rock. But he did not take, let alone answer, any questions about the £5m “personal gift” he received from Christopher Harborne, a crypto billionaire based in Thailand, or his relationship with George Cottrell, a convicted fraudster. 

Farage is attempting to appeal over the heads of the House of Commons standards commissioner and the media holding him to account to what he suggests is a higher authority – the electorate. But if he is returned as the MP for Clacton all the same questions will remain and he will still be subject to investigation. His conspiracy theories will not protect him. 

There could even be a second byelection later in the year if he is found to have broken House of Commons rules – although it is surely less likely that 10% of his constituents will sign a recall petition saying they want him to lose his seats if a majority of voters have just endorsed him to be their MP. By triggering a by-election now on his terms, Farage is cynically attempting to take control of the situation. 

Like Andy Burnham in Makerfield, the Reform UK leader hopes to tap into the anti-politics mood, presenting himself as an insurgent taking on the Westminster elite. It may work – the driving force in politics right now is the mistrust of politicians and everything they represent, particularly in places like Clacton, a deprived coastal town where many people are struggling.

But Farage had to redefine his terms. Where once he was a man of the people, with a pint in his hand, now he is projecting himself as a financial whizz who should be trusted with the economy because he understands business and wealth in contrast to cabinet ministers who “haven’t got a clue” about the corporate world. “The really big question that I want to pose is do we want leaders that know how to make money?” he said. It was pure Donald Trump. 

Farage must know that he is increasingly seen as an establishment figure by the voters. In focus groups, a growing number of people are starting to describe him as just another Westminster insider, surrounded by Tory retreads. “I think Farage is going to be another person who’s got all these big ideas but actually implementing them is a completely different story,” one participant said in a group in Braintree that I joined recently. “So many Conservatives have defected to him. I’m not so sure that he stands for what his party originally stood for.” 

Reform UK is being outflanked to the right by Rupert Lowe’s Restore UK. For years the Reform leader has revelled in his status as a disruptor but now there is a new “bad boy of Brexit” who is even more willing to shake things up and break taboos. This is his attempt to regain his anti-establishment credentials.

We may be heading for a phoney byelection with no serious candidate standing against Farage. Lowe has already said his party will not “participate in a Reform-sponsored media circus over the summer months that is designed to puff up Farage’s ego”. Andy Burnham’s allies dismissed the Reform leader’s decision to quit as a “gimmick designed to distract from serious allegations about Farage’s funders”. Kemi Badenoch said there should not be a byelection and Farage was having a “hissy fit”.

It would be appropriate. The Reform leader – educated at private school, with a career in the City and a long history as a politician – has never been a true outsider. His brand is authenticity; he is a fake. But the disillusionment with politics that Farage and Lowe are both tapping into is real and dangerous. Burnham won the Makerfield byelection as a political outsider promising to take on the “rotten culture” at Westminster. He will not have long to prove he can deliver change.

Photograph by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images