https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/farage-stunt-flops-reform-cash-questions-multiply

NIGEL FARAGE’S desperate by-election gambit has descended into farce as his Reform party was rocked by fresh funding revelations.

It emerged that the Reform boss’s £5 million donation from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, and other cash for the party, was referred to the National Crime Agency as suspicious.

Labour Party chair Anna Turley called the news “astonishing and deeply serious” and called on Mr Farage to “come clean and co-operate” with the agency.

The fresh scandal about Mr Farage’s funding, first reported by the Guardian, came as he faced the prospect of a hot summer campaigning to keep his Clacton seat in the face of a challenge by Count Binface.

The perennial comedy candidate was the only confirmed opponent to Mr Farage in the by-election he provoked to regain control of a media narrative over sleaze which was gradually paralysing his political operation.

However, the Tories, Labour, Greens, Liberal Democrats and Restore parties all called Reform’s bluff by confirming that they would not stand in the by-election, describing it as a farce.

The local Green party was the last to declare its abstention, issuing a statement saying “we have no intention of helping to legitimise a by-election that appears designed not to serve local residents but to serve Nigel Farage’s personal political ambitions.

“This contest is not about the people of Clacton. It is about one politician placing himself at the centre of a media spectacle and expecting local residents to play supporting roles in a drama of his own making.”

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