Kemi Badenoch has used a letter to Clacton to set out the Conservatives’ approach to the Clacton by-election, saying her party would field a serious candidate if another contest is forced by a standards case. The Tory leader’s intervention comes as voters in the Essex coastal seat prepare to go to the polls on Thursday after Nigel Farage stepped down as an MP and triggered the vote.
Farage, the Reform UK leader, will be one of 34 names on the ballot. Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens are not standing candidates, arguing that the resignation is a stunt and should not affect the inquiry that prompted the dispute. Badenoch told voters in Clacton that Farage had called the by-election to help himself rather than serve the area, and she accused him of using the vote to sort out his own problems.
The row centres on a parliamentary standards investigation led by commissioner Daniel Greenberg into a £5m gift from cryptocurrency tycoon Christopher Harborne. The money was given before Farage took his seat in the House of Commons, and the inquiry was examining whether it should have been declared when he entered Parliament. That investigation was paused when Farage resigned, but it is expected to resume if he wins the Clacton by-election.
Farage has said the donation was for his security. He argued it was made with the understanding that the state had never wanted to help with his personal protection. He is now presenting the contest as a public verdict on his honesty, adding a new layer of political risk to a race that has already become a test of his judgment and credibility.
The stakes could rise again if the standards process finds he broke the rules and a suspension of more than 10 days is imposed. That could set off a recall petition and open the door to another public vote, creating further uncertainty for the seat and for Reform’s campaign around its leader.
