Nigel Farage, who heads the right-wing Reform UK party, announced on Tuesday (July 7, 2026) that he was resigning as the MP for the English constituency of Clacton-on-Sea, only to quickly add that he would re-run in the ensuing byelection. Mr. Farage, a polarising figure with staying power, has survived a plane crash, a car crash and several milkshakes thrown at him by protestors. He is now seeking to politically survive the latest scandal brewing around him.
Mr. Farage is currently being investigated by a parliamentary process for not registering a £5 million personal gift from a Thailand-based crypto millionaire, Christopher Harborne. There are other recent controversies as well, including a recent report in the Sunday Times about gifts Mr. Farage received from a long-time associate and convicted fraudster, George Cottrell. He has denied wrongdoing in both these instances, arguing the gifts were personal. Mr. Farage could be suspended if the parliamentary probe into the Harborne case finds that he broke the rules.
Lead ‘Leave’ campaigner
Mr. Farage is no stranger to controversy. He was the informal lead of the deeply divisive ‘Leave’ campaign, which sought to take the U.K. out of the European Union (Brexit). In 2010, he acquired notoriety for a speech in the European Parliament, in which he called Belgium a “non-country” and its former Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy a “damp rag” to his face.
Mr. Farage was born in a well-to-do family in Kent in 1964. His father was a stockbroker who struggled with alcoholism and left the family home when his son was five. After completing his schooling at Dulwich College in London, Mr. Farage chose to become a commodity trader in London rather than attend university.
Having joined the Conservative Party as a teenager, he quit it in the early 1990s after the John Major government signed the EU’s foundational Maastricht Treaty. Mr. Farage, by now a Eurosceptic, became a founding member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in 1993. In 1999, he became a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in Strasbourg and quit being a trader. He would continue as an MEP until 2020, focusing his European career on getting the U.K. out of the EU.
Rise of Reform
After Brexit, Mr. Farage acquired a new objective: replacing the Conservative party as the main opposition to Labour. In 2021, during the pandemic, having dissolved the Brexit Party, Mr. Farage created Reform UK. Part of its initial platform was to oppose COVID-19 restrictions. It currently supports tight immigration control including rescinding permanent residence and has taken up right-wing culture wars, such as “supporting free speech” and countering policies such as affirmative action. It also seeks to scrap net-zero policies.
Prior to his election to the U.K. Parliament in July 2024, Mr. Farage had worked as a television broadcaster and programme guest, including in America, where he has appeared on various Fox News programmes. Since at least 2016, Mr. Farage has cultivated ties with U.S. President Donald Trump, becoming one of the first foreign politicians to visit him after his first White House victory. He has sought to develop Reform as the British version of Mr. Trump’s MAGA political platform. In December 2024, he met with tech entrepreneur and Trump associate Elon Musk at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort but the relationship appeared to sour eventually, with Mr. Musk suggesting Mr. Farage was not best placed to lead Reform.
Mr. Farage formed the Brexit Party in 2019 as the Brexit process was approaching its multi-year conclusion. The Party comfortably led all other U.K. parties in the 2019 European Parliament elections and Mr. Farage was elected an MEP one last time. With Brexit complete in 2020, all British MEPs ceased to hold office.
‘Voice of the opposition’
Mr. Farage wanted to team up with former Conservative leader Boris Johnson for the December 2019 U.K. general election to form a ‘Leave’ alliance. The idea of such an alliance was also mooted by Mr. Trump, who said the duo could do “something terrific”. Mr. Johnson, however, rejected the idea of an election pact. Mr. Farage unilaterally announced that he would not field a Brexit Party candidate in 317 seats the Tories had previously won.
The relationship between the two men soured after Brexit, starting with the Johnson government’s immigration, tax and spending policies. They also sparred over Mr. Farage’s views on the Ukraine war which were seen sympathetic to Moscow. Last year, Mr. Farage said he would “never, ever forgive” Mr. Johnson for policies that contributed to increased migration into the U.K.
In the run-up to the July 2024 general election, which Labour was expected to win, Mr. Farage ruled out joining the Tories, insisting that Reform UK would become “the leading voice of the opposition”. The Conservatives, it turned out, became the official opposition, but Reform broke its previous records. While it had just five MPs in the 650-member House of Commons, it won the third largest vote share of 14.3%.
Even with just a handful of MPs in Parliament, Reform has been wielding an outsized influence on government and the opposition.
Election gains
A number of key sitting Tory MPs defected to Reform just this year. Reform made significant gains in local council elections in England and assembly elections in Wales and Scotland in May, at the expense of Labour and the Conservatives. Labour’s significant tightening of migration policies has been a reaction to Reform’s positions and voter preferences. The threat of Reform has also featured in the debate around who should lead Labour in the 2029 elections.
While Reform has more consistently led other parties in opinion polls since around the middle of 2025, Mr. Farage’s own popularity has suffered. His net favourability ratings were worse than Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s but higher than outgoing Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s, as per polling from April this year.
Andy Burnham, who is likely to replace Mr. Starmer imminently as the U.K.’s Prime Minister, had a 20-point lead over Mr. Farage in a June YouGov poll about who would make a better Prime Minister. Reform also stands to potentially lose votes to hard right party Restore Britain. Mr. Farage, while far from safe electorally, is unlikely to go gently into the political night.
Published – July 09, 2026 11:21 am IST
