By Andrew MacAskill
LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) – Nigel Farage, the self-described troublemaker of British politics, added another twist to his turbulent career on Tuesday by announcing he was resigning from parliament to recontest his parliamentary seat to answer criticism about his finances.
The unexpected move comes after recent revelations about gifts and financial support Farage received from a billionaire cryptocurrency investor and from a political ally who was once convicted of wire fraud in the United States.
Farage said his decision to stand for re-election was part of a strategy of “sticking two fingers up at the establishment” and he hoped it would prove that voters in the seat he represents wanted him to stay on as their member of parliament.
It is a risky strategy for a politician who has spent most of his career defying political convention. Britain’s main parties said they would boycott the contest, describing it as a stunt and undermining Farage’s efforts to frame the one-off election as a referendum on his future.
BRITAIN’S MOST INFLUENTIAL POLITICAL OUTSIDER
Farage, 62, a leading campaigner for Brexit, is one of the most flamboyant and divisive politicians in modern British history. For more than a year, his Reform UK party has led almost every national opinion poll and won local elections, posing a threat to the century-old dominance of the Labour and Conservative parties.
Although he spent most of his career being shunned by the establishment, which he openly despises, Farage has helped shape the national political conversation for more than two decades, putting pressure on a succession of prime ministers to take a tougher approach on immigration and helping to force the vote on leaving the European Union.
Farage, a skilled and pugnacious communicator, has arguably changed Britain more than some prime ministers, even though he never served in government and was only elected to the national parliament at his eighth attempt, in 2024.
RESIGNATIONS, RETURNS AND THE BREXIT VOTE
Farage has resigned four times from two different political parties and fallen out with many colleagues.
He has been hugely influential, despite not being a member of either of Britain’s main two political parties, due to his man-of-the-people persona that made him a media star.
Routinely seen with a cigarette in one hand and a pint of beer in the other, Farage often discusses subjects in blunter terms than most British politicians.
By continually highlighting concerns about immigration from the EU, he did more than anyone else to put pressure on former Prime Minister David Cameron to call the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Although Farage lost the battle to officially lead the campaign to leave the EU, his rambunctious unofficial grouping warned about the millions of people who could move to Britain under EU membership, rousing voters, some of whom had never bothered voting before. Britons unexpectedly voted by 52% to 48% to exit the EU.
But eight days after winning the referendum Farage unexpectedly resigned as the United Kingdom Independence Party’s leader, saying he wanted his “life back”.
Two years later, with politicians locked in stalemate over how to leave the EU, Farage returned to politics and again had a decisive impact.
After his newly founded Brexit Party came first in the European elections in 2019, Conservative lawmakers, worried about the threat he posed, moved to topple then-Prime Minister Theresa May.
He then resigned again to focus on his media career and struck up a friendship with U.S. President Donald Trump.
But he was drawn back to British politics and was elected to parliament with his rebranded Reform UK party, helping to send his centre-right rival Conservative Party to its worst-ever defeat.
Over the last year, Farage’s party has focused on professionalising Reform, attracting big donors and moving to a new headquarters close to parliament.
However, he has struggled to answer questions about why he personally accepted a £5 million ($6.7 million) gift from a Thai-based billionaire crypto investor that his critics say was not properly disclosed, and which is now the subject of a parliamentary standards watchdog investigation.
The broader fundraising effort has transformed the party into one that pollsters suggest is likely to win the most seats at the next general election, due in 2029 — making Farage a potential future prime minister.
But before then he would have to prove that he can survive the kind of scrutiny that comes with being a contender to lead a government rather than just a critic of it.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill, editing by Elizabeth Piper and Alex Richardson)
