By Elizabeth Piper, Sam Tabahriti and William James
LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) – Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party, said on Tuesday he was standing down as a lawmaker to fight a new local election against “the establishment”, which he accused of waging war against him with accusations about his finances.
In an announcement when the usually composed veteran Brexit campaigner stumbled on his words, Farage, 62, vented his anger at what he called a “pile on” by the mainstream media and other parties over gifts given to him by his personal supporters.
Describing the final straw as what he called media intrusion into his family’s privacy, Farage said he had triggered a parliamentary election to continue to represent the southern seaside area of Clacton “to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment”.
“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,” he said, adding he was standing down to force the Clacton election.
“This will be a people versus the establishment by-election” he said. “It is a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment.”
Farage has for weeks faced mounting allegationsabout his finances, which he forcefully denied again on Tuesday, repeatedly saying: “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
The by-election is characteristic Farage, hoping to win another mandate to sit in parliament in the most overt yet attack on the liberal “establishment”, which he has accused of overseeing “a progressive, woke ideology” that has left Britons ashamed of their country.
“I will fight to win,” he said. “I will fight to continue the political revolution that Reform has started.”
(additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill, Alistair Smout, Sarah Young and Sam Tabahriti, additional reporting by Muvija M, writing by Elizabeth Piper, Editing by Kate Holton, William Maclean)
