Farage has taken a gamble - but his rivals are taking a bigger one

By vacating the battlefield in Clacton, the establishment parties are showing contempt for the democratic process

You probably won’t agree with all of Mr Embery’s policy prescriptions, but he will force you to think outside your usual political grooves — Wall Street Journal

Photo: Circus on Clacton pier by Steve Daniels, via Wikimedia Commons

IF I WERE Nigel Farage, I wouldn’t have resigned my seat and forced a by-election. I can see why, having concluded that the allegations of impropriety being levelled against him were part of a Whitehall stitch up, he felt the need to do so. After all, for any politician under fire, no verdict is ultimately more convincing or legitimising than one cast by the electorate at the ballot box.

But there was always a risk that things might not pan out as intended, and the Reform leader has undoubtedly been thrown off balance by events since he made his big announcement.

I do not know if Farage is guilty of breaking parliamentary rules in relation to large donations intended, he says, for his private security arrangements. But I do know from personal experience, having co-hosted a show with him on GB News and been in his company in public spaces, that Farage’s security concerns are very real, and that he is forced to take the kind of precautions that would seem alien to most other MPs.

I also know that he is the latest in a growing list of populist politicians and parties across Europe who have found themselves on the end of serious allegations lobbed by opponents from within the establishment – often accompanied by the flimsiest evidence – which then seem to tie them up in lengthy legal or procedural wranglings and sometimes impede their route to power. Strange, that.

But back to Clacton.