If Farage is found to have broken parliamentary rules Clacton could face another byelection. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Reform UK leader’s return to Clacton restarts inquiry into £5m gift from cyrpto-billionaire and support from fraudster
The suspended parliamentary standards investigation into Nigel Farage over accusations he failed to declare gifts and donations has resumed after the Reform UK leader’s re-election as the MP for Clacton.
The twofold investigation by Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, was paused after Farage resigned from his seat and called a byelection in protest at what he said was unfair scrutiny of his finances.
Now the investigation had restarted, according to the commissioner’s website, which said previously that the process had been suspended from 8 July, when the MP resigned.
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If Farage is found to have broken parliamentary rules and is suspended from the Commons for at least 10 sitting days he could face a recall petition, where a byelection is called if at least 10% of local voters demand it.
According to one report, Farage called his own byelection after his team advised that leaving parliament would end the investigation. In fact it only pauses such processes, which resume if the person is re-elected.
Nigel Farage is scathing at the £250,000 cost to the taxpayer of his unnecessary and ridiculous Clacton-on-Sea election campaign that he caused to avoid scrutiny and acccountability for the £5MILLION ‘gift’ that he didn’t declare.Nigel Farage explains that he’s called another byelection in Clacton-on-Sea because he should be able to secretly enrich himself without scrutiny and accountabilty and that the rules shouldn’t apply to him.Nigel Farage admits to being a whore willing to do anything for someone with a big fat wallet and asks whether drinking pints and smoking fags is not enough for the stupid plebs.
I came first in the Clacton by-election! Of the candidates who bothered to turn up for the results. Here is my victory speech!
“A new dawn has broken … ” Nice one
Nigel Farage is scathing at the £250,000 cost to the taxpayer of his unnecessary and ridiculous Clacton-on-Sea election campaign that he caused to avoid scrutiny and acccountability for the £5MILLION ‘gift’ that he didn’t declare.Nigel Farage explains that he’s called another byelection in Clacton-on-Sea because he should be able to secretly enrich himself without scrutiny and accountabilty and that the rules shouldn’t apply to him.
Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage speaking at a Reform UK press conference on 3 June 2024. Credit: Reform UK / YouTube
The Reform UK leader is a vocal opponent of net zero policies, and has questioned the basis of established climate science.
Pro-Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage has announced that he will be standing to be an MP at the upcoming general election and will be replacing Richard Tice as leader of the populist party Reform UK.
Farage, who says that he hopes to become “the voice of opposition” in Parliament, has long been a vocal opponent of climate action and a critic of climate science – campaigning for a referendum on the UK’s 2050 net zero emissions target.
When he was the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), the party’s 2015 and 2017 election manifestos pledged to rip up green measures, repeal the UK’s Climate Change Act, withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement – the flagship deal to tackle global emissions – and support fossil fuel extraction.
These reflected Farage’s personal views on climate action. In 2015, he told the libertarian website Spiked: “I think wind energy is the biggest collective economic insanity I’ve seen in my entire life. I’ve never seen anything more stupid, more illogical, or more irrational.”
Farage is a presenter on GB News, the right-wing broadcaster that has regularly provided a platform to climate science denial and attacks on green reforms since it launched in June 2021.
Speaking on GB News in August 2021, Farage said that he was “very much an environmentalist” and that he couldn’t “abide things like plastics in our seas, pollution in our rivers.” However, on the issue of climate change, he added: “What annoys me though, is this complete obsession with carbon dioxide almost to the exclusion of everything else, the alarmism that comes with it, based on dodgy predictions and science.”
The world’s foremost climate science body, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has stated it is “unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land”, while scientists at NASA have found that the last 10 years were the hottest on record. Earth’s average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest since records began in 1880.
The IPCC has also stated that carbon dioxide “is responsible for most of global warming” since the late 19th century, which has increased the “severity and frequency of weather and climate extremes, like heat waves, heavy rains, and drought”.
Farage has been a vocal critic of net zero. He has claimed that the policy is an “act of self harm” and has called for it to be scrapped.
He has said: “It will not bring economic benefits. It will make everybody a whole lot poorer. And yet the lemmings in Parliament are taking us towards an economic cliff,” adding: “I can’t think of an issue on which the public and politicians are more divided.”
In fact, politicians are markedly less in favour of climate action than the general public. New polling by YouGov for the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has shown that almost two-thirds (62 percent) of the public believe the best way to achieve energy security is to reduce the use of fossil fuels and instead expand the use of renewable energy, compared to 48 percent of MPs.
The Climate Change Committee, which advises the government on its net zero policies, has estimated that the cost of achieving net zero will be less than 1 percent of UK GDP, while the government independent spending watchdog – the Office for Budget Responsibility – has said that, “the costs of failing to get climate change under control would be much larger than those of bringing emissions down to net zero”.
Farage has also claimed that, “If green technology is going to work, it ought to work without ordinary folk subsidising it” – referring to the government grants and investment dedicated to developing clean energy sources. The UK government has given £20 billion more in support to fossil fuel producers than their renewable energy peers since 2015.
Farage has also spread conspiracy theories about anti-pollution measures being used to control people’s lives.
In a video posted on Twitter, he argued that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s calls to reduce air pollution by cutting car engine use would pave the way to “climate lockdowns”.
He said: “Mark my words this isn’t going to end with 20mph zones and low-traffic neighbourhoods. No no. This is the beginning of climate lockdowns. We will have, in years to come, days where we’re told we can’t drive, we can’t do this, you can’t do that while Sadiq Khan is leading the way. Remember you heard it here first. Climate lockdowns.”
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue has highlighted how climate lockdown claims are part of “a conspiratorial narrative which claims that global elites are using climate change as a pretext to restrict individual freedoms and civil liberties.”
Farage and Reform UK
Farage used his announcement to state his belief that Labour will win the general election, which will be held on 4 July, and that the Conservative Party has “crushed itself”. With the Tories predicted to lose in a landslide, Farage appears to believe that he can lead a new right-wing movement.
The Reform leader was already a key figure in the party prior to today’s announcement, effectively owning the party as well as serving as its president. Reform operates as a private company without a democratic structure, so Farage’s majority shareholding meant that could have appointed himself as leader at any time.
Despite Farage failing to be elected as an MP when he stood in seven previous general elections, and Reform only winning two councillors in May’s local elections, polls indicate that Farage may succeed in becoming the MP for Clacton.
If this is the case, Farage will be advocating in Parliament for the anti-climate policies that have been proposed by his party.
Reform has called for the UK’s net zero emissions target to be scrapped, and has proposed holding a referendum on the policy – a campaign launched by Farage in 2022.
The party’s policy agenda states that: “Westminster’s net zero plans send our jobs and money overseas, making us net poorer and net colder”, adding that net zero policies are “net stupid”.
The party’s former leader Tice, who will now become its chairman, is a prominent climate science denier. Tice has claimed that “there is no climate crisis”, and has also expressed the view that “CO2 isn’t a poison. It’s plant food”.
Of the £2.5 million that Reform UK has received in donations since the 2019 election, around 92 percent (£2.3 million) of that income has been given by fossil fuel interests, polluting industries, or climate science deniers.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Reform leader boosted the president’s attacks on UK Chagos Islands policy more often than raising the cost of living.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage used a quarter of his speeches in Parliament to boost U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on the UK’s Chagos Islands deal – three times more than he raised the cost of living.
DeSmog’s analysis of parliamentary records finds that the former Clacton MP – who resigned last month in response to a series of financial scandals – raised the UK’s proposed deal with Mauritius in 10 of the 40 times he spoke in the House of Commons.
Farage, who was first elected to Parliament in July 2024, mentioned Chagos more than any subject except immigration. This compares with only one speech about winter fuel payments, one on energy policy, and one about UK budget measures, all topics with a direct impact on the cost of living.
“Seeing how often Farage has voiced views that line up perfectly with Trump’s interests, you might think he was the MP for Washington DC, not Clacton-on-Sea,” said Graeme McGregor, campaign manager at the Good Law Project.
“He ought to spend more time focusing on issues that matter to people in Clacton, rather than his pastimes of grandstanding, jet-setting and schmoozing.”
A version of this article was published by The Mirror.
Most of Farage’s Chagos speeches also mentioned Trump, whose opposition to the deal saw it shelved in April. Negotiated by the previous Conservative government, it proposed giving Mauritius control of the islands, which are located in the Indian Ocean, with a 99-year lease for the UK to run the Diego Garcia military base, which is seen as a crucial asset by the U.S. government.
In December 2024, Farage told the Commons he had “just returned, hotfoot, from a very full Mar-a-Lago”, Trump’s resort in Florida, and that “several members” of the incoming administration had expressed “deep disquiet” about plans to “surrender the sovereignty of the islands”.
This was echoed in February 2025, when Farage claimed the agreement could destroy hopes of a UK-U.S. trade deal, claiming Britain’s chances of avoiding American tariffs would “evaporate”.
“The special relationship will be dangerously fractured if the government carry on with this,” he added.
The Reform leader also used the Commons to boast of his close relationship with Trump. “I think I am in a fortunate position. It is not just that for 10 years I have stood up and defended President Trump – I was very much on my own in those days – but that I know half his Cabinet,” he said in February 2025.
Farage has also campaigned against the Chagos deal in meetings with U.S. government officials, and tried to visit the Islands in February on a trip funded by Christopher Harborne, the donor at the centre of his resignation scandal.
DeSmog has previously reported that Farage mentioned his constituency just twice in Parliament in the past 12 months, and only six times since his 2024 election. Over the same period, he has received £2.3 million in non-parliamentary income.
Reform, which has received more than £24 million from oil and gas interests, has vowed to emulate Trump’s policies – campaigning for the “mass deportations” of immigrants and dramatically increased fossil fuel extraction.
In an interview on his GB News show in January, Farage urged Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, to build opposition to the Chagos deal in the United States. Farage has also reportedly raised the issue directly with the White House on several occasions.
In February, he attempted to visit the Chagos Islands via the nearby Maldives to support four Chagossians who are opposed to the deal. He has claimed he was blocked from entry by the UK government, which said it had no prior knowledge of Farage’s visit.
The £25,000 trip was paid for by Harborne, the crypto billionaire whose £5 million undeclared “gift” to Farage before the 2024 election was being investigated by parliament’s standards commissioner when the Reform leader resigned last month.
The investigation is expected to resume if he wins the by-election on 13 August, which all major parties have boycotted.
Like Trump, Harborne — who has given Reform more than £25 million to date — also appears to oppose the Chagos deal. As well as bankrolling Farage’s visit to the region, Harborne has pledged to fund the small group of Chagossians trying to halt the UK government’s plan.
Nick Dearden of the campaign group Global Justice Now, told DeSmog: “Farage made his name lecturing us about British sovereignty, but he clearly has no idea what this means, because whenever British interests are attacked by Donald Trump, Farage sides with the bully-boy in the White House.
“Trump has repeatedly interfered in British politics, slamming our energy policy, forcing changes in our regulation of Big Tech companies and even fleecing the NHS,” Dearden added. “His poodle, Farage, has not stood up to him on one occasion. Instead, he has used his position to support a man who is so clearly trying to weaken us.”
Nigel Farage and Reform UK have been contacted for comment.
Farage’s Chagos Chatter in Parliament
“…how confident is the foreign secretary that Donald Trump, if he becomes the 47th President of the USA, will approve of this deal, given the importance of our relationship with America?” 7 October, 2024
“I assure the House, having been in America last week and knowing the incoming U.S. defence secretary very well, that there is outright hostility towards this deal. […] Diego Garcia was described to me by a senior Trump adviser as the most important island on the planet for America, so the minister will find outright hostility.” 13 November, 2024
“I have just returned, hotfoot, from a very full Mar-a-Lago. I spoke to several members—senior administrators, especially—of the incoming administration, which will be in the White House in 32 days’ time. Let me assure you that there is very deep disquiet among them all as to what this deal may mean for the long-term future of Diego Garcia and whether such a deal will hold […] They also cannot understand why we would surrender the sovereignty of the islands on an advisory judgment from a pretty obscure court.” 18 December, 2024
“Diego Garcia is probably the single most important thing that we give America right now. Without it, America does not have access to the middle east, India and much else.
[…] I genuinely fear that if this continues and the American administration wakes up to it – I could quote three members of the Cabinet I have spoken to personally about it – our chances of not just avoiding tariffs but moving on to a sectoral free trade deal will all but evaporate. The special relationship will be dangerously fractured if the Government carry on with this…” 4th February, 2025
“The Americans, by the way, have been pretty busy with foreign policy just lately, so it is perhaps no wonder that Diego Garcia has not been high on their agenda, but when they wake up to the fact that this has been done – wholly unnecessarily – I would not be surprised if we find ourselves, together with the European Union, in their tariff regime.” 5 February, 2025
“[Urgent question:] To ask His Majesty’s Government to give us an update on the situation with regard to the Diego Garcia American military base and the British Indian Ocean Territory, especially in light of the recent comments of the American President.” 25 February, 2026
Nigel Farage is scathing at the £250,000 cost to the taxpayer of his unnecessary and ridiculous Clacton-on-Sea election campaign that he caused to avoid scrutiny and acccountability for the £5MILLION ‘gift’ that he didn’t declare.Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Shrivelled sunflowers near the village of Kovilj, Serbia. Photograph: Andrej Isaković/AFP/Getty Image.
Slovakia reaches new high of 42C as authorities in Poland forced to shut down Kozienice and Połaniec power plants
Temperature records have been broken in several countries across central and eastern Europe as the extreme weather that has caused wildfires and droughts across the continent continues.
Countries including Slovakia, Austria and Hungary registered record temperatures. On Thursday, the Slovakian hydrometeorological agency said a new high of 42C (108F) had been reached in Dolné Plachtince.
Authorities in Poland were forced to shut down the Kozienice and Połaniec coal-fired power plants after critically low water levels in the Vistula River limited cooling water supplies. The disruption removed about 1.3GW of capacity from Poland’s power system.
In Germany, climate activists demanding an end to the use of fossil fuels demonstrated outside the chancellery against the lack of government action to keep people safe from extreme heat. An estimated 11,900 people across the country have died from heat this summer, according to new estimates from the Robert Koch Institute.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Power-mad orange gasbag Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
