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Farage vs Binface: Has the Reform leader's masterplan backfired? | Emily Maitlis
Jul 9, 2026
Emily Maitlis joins Jess Phillips as all the major parties refuse to stand candidates in the potential Clacton by-election. This comes as Reform leader Nigel Farage sensationally quit as MP for Clacton and vowed to fight a "people versus establishment" by-election amid a row over his finances. In a video statement, he said: “I thought about it hard and I have decided today I will resign as a Member of Parliament for Clacton-on-Sea, thereby forcing a by-election, which should happen, I hope, in short order." But in a bid to clear his name amid the funding row, he announced he would contest for the Clacton seat again. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #jessphillips #emilymaitlis #nigelfarage #ukpolitics #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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0:00
Are you looking forward to heading to Clacton
0:01
Do you know what? Funny enough, we were going to go to Clacton today. And we have been many times to Clacton
0:07
And I thought the speed at which the major parties decided not to play game
0:14
was astonishing. I did kind of think if you'd actually got your act together
0:18
over any of the other policies like this, or over the Brexit votes and the debates
0:24
that would have been great too. I mean, it feels like it's taken 10 years to get to this place
0:29
where there has been a sort of cohesion between the main parties
0:33
I genuinely, as it was happening, I mean, the Labour Party had to go to an NEC meeting
0:38
You know, God love the Labour Party. There's always a process for everything. I can't remember who it was
0:42
No, Bevan, maybe you said that the Labour Party needs a little less democracy and a little more trust
0:48
But even that was called immediately to make the decision. How long did it take
0:54
Not very long. And let me tell you, I've lost a lot of hours of my life in a Labour NEC meeting
0:59
So them being done quickly is a rarity. But I think it was Kemi Badenoch and the Lib Dems were immediately out of the traps
1:09
He was straight out of the traps. I think Ed Davey was first. And then Kemi Badenoch agreed
1:13
And what I thought was interesting is that normally on any of those sort of issues
1:17
you get people pulling in slightly different directions or making the political grandstand for it
1:21
And actually, partly, I think, because of the state of your party, quite frankly
1:26
that Keir Starmer is away. He's kind of in charge, but he's not really in charge
1:30
He's talking about it, but he's at NATO. Andy Burnham's not in the job, but he's all over it
1:35
and he kind of saw straight away what was going on. I think Kemi actually became the sort of de facto leader at that point
1:42
You know, she was the person on the stage going... She was here. She was here, you know
1:46
She was here and, frankly, very clear-sighted about it. I thought it was a sort of simple way of sending out a direct message
1:56
I mean, what do you think? Do you think the election should go ahead anyway? Well, look, I mean, look, if it is just Binface and Nigel Farage
2:04
there's a sort of, you know, an absolutely sort of delicious thing
2:09
about, like, the whole thing being a total joke. But actually, personally, look, it won't go to the ballot
2:15
if nobody stands against him. It won't even go. Because Labour, the government can actually stop this from happening, right
2:21
The government can... It's up to the Chancellor, weirdly, I think. The Chancellor gets to decide whether when the writ is moved, and this is very parliamentary
2:30
sort of talk that when they try and propose that this would happen the Chancellor will appoint Nigel Farage to a weird position in government which basically means they stand down
2:43
Isn't it the Chilton? There's two. There's Chilton hundreds. Listen to us
2:47
But I think it's Chilton hundreds this time because I think Andy Burnham was the other one
2:51
So basically, Rachel Reeves could decide now that he cannot resign. And it's also a debatable motion
2:57
Again, I'd like to apologise to everybody in the world the parliamentary language is weird
3:03
Imagine our foreign friends and listeners just looking on and going, what are they doing? What are they doing now
3:07
Well, and also if it's just him and Binface, I do think that it's a quirk of British democracy
3:13
that this sort of thing happens. I don't see, I can't imagine Le Pen up against, like, you know, a fridge
3:19
But here we are. But, yeah, look, I think it would be better, actually
3:25
because not to allow him to go out onto the campaign trail. and if there is just one person on the ballot
3:31
he needs opposition, he needs victimhood. Nigel Farage needs victimhood. And if everybody just ignores him
3:39
it's like my nan used to say to us, just ignore them, they'll be quiet in a minute
3:45
if one of us was having a tantrum. I do think that that would be the better option
3:49
He's done it for attention, he's done it to get rid of scrutiny. If everyone just goes, no, we're not playing this game, mate
3:55
Why do you think we're incapable of ignoring him then? Look, I think, I didn't watch it yesterday
4:03
I started to watch it and I thought, what are you doing? You don't care what this man thinks. I mean, there is genuinely, Jess, a real question actually
4:09
about carrying these things live, right? Which is... You should wait to know what it is on merit, I have to say
4:15
to sort of, and look, he did, it was a big story
4:19
so it was almost right that they were there. But at one point I was like, oh he's probably just going to come out fighting and saying oh the media are so smear and i just
4:28
thought why are we all carrying this live this man leads a political party that has i think eight
4:35
mps um we're carrying it live without knowing the merit of the story yet now it turned out to to to
4:43
have merit but i do think that he gets a huge amount of attention but that he knows that and
4:51
that's why he does it like the two sides feed themselves it's like you know like a self-fulfilling
4:58
prophecy um that he wants to control the narrative and sometimes he's allowed to do that like he
5:05
holds these he always hold in a press conference i know he stopped recently because he didn want to be asked questions but like i don i never in all my years of being in I never gone do you know what I got something to say I just going to hold a press conference and expect everybody to turn up
5:21
It's very bizarre, actually. And look, I think he's, he must know he's banged to rights on the account of like
5:32
Otherwise he'd just get out there and say it, wouldn't you? and also it's
5:35
look at my accounts yeah it's very tedious the process of the parliamentary standards commissioner
5:41
I don't want to underestimate that it is quite a it's an onerous thing to go through
5:47
and I have done it but the like if he's got nothing to hide
5:54
then he has nothing to fear genuinely like he has genuinely nothing to fear
5:59
if he has nothing to hide because they will look at all the evidence
6:03
and they will make a decision about whether it then goes to the panel of politicians
6:09
as it did with Boris Johnson, and they were put under a huge amount of pressure
6:16
But there's no reason for Nigel Farage to fear that process, other than if he's guilty of sin
6:23
Yeah. So, can I ask you something? Because we don't often speak in the live on radio
6:31
and who you are yes i can i can um is it weird this whole period this sort of interregnum like
6:40
do you still i don't like it at all uh i feel like the this sort of we're in a bit of a no
6:47
man's land if you will although there's lots of men in the no man's land um is um i i don't like
6:56
it much i'll sort of want it to move on now and i understand the sort of transition period certainly
7:01
within my own political party why they wanted it and why that was what was laid out
7:05
But the nominations for the next Prime Minister hasn't even opened yet
7:09
It opens on a Thursday when nobody is in Parliament. I don't really understand that, but anyway
7:13
And they can't speed it up, or you think nobody really wants to
7:17
I don't think it's in the interests of anybody involved, any of the main players involved, so Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham
7:25
for that to be the case. But it is bizarre. And now, enter stage left Nigel Farage
7:30
and it does it does feel also you get this thing in uh politics where you are you know crashing
7:37
towards the recess and you start to feel like you crawling um and i do think everybody is just a little bit like oh come on let just we need to just i just want to crack on with my job Let just get cracking But it hard isn it Because they cracking on with jobs
7:53
and they don't know if that's the job that they're going to have. And I mean, do you think
7:57
everyone's talked about the fact it was like a bloodless coup. You know, it was a very smooth sort of transition
8:02
Has it made you question sort of loyalties? And I mean, it's such a weird word
8:07
to use in politics, isn't it? But you know, did you find it weird, for example
8:12
that Rachel Reeves didn't go outside to wave off her boss? Did you find it weird that there weren't more people around Keir Starmer
8:18
when he made his exit? Or do you think people have just kind of got their head on and moved on
8:24
I think the Rachel Reeves thing genuinely I would explain it by I think that if she'd been there she would have been so upset
8:29
that it would have become the story and she didn't want that to be the case. I don't know that, she's not said that to me
8:34
but that is what I am guessing. You think she was really upset that he was going
8:39
Yeah, yeah, and look, you know, like, it's her political, she's, like, leashed to him, isn't it
8:44
She and her political career in lots of ways. So upset for him and just upset for, like, you know, it's a sad thing
8:50
regardless of whether you like to Keir Starmer or not, it's a sad thing
8:55
But the loyalties, the loyalties have become, like, who is actually loyal to who have become much clearer
9:00
And I've got to say that I quite like that. I don't like the sort of, like, people playing those ends against the middle
9:07
there are lots of people in parliament who are very sad and it doesn't feel bloodless to them
9:11
and there are lots of people who are very excited what i would say is there is a definite sense of
9:16
hope uh in change um people fully enough like change actually they like a light you know a
9:23
sort of injection of something else and okay we need to uh now uh act in a different way or or get
9:30
momentum behind certain things but it's it's so everyone's saying that that oh there's too much
9:36
change and there's too much you know instability you think people actually quite like change well
9:40
i i do think that the public uh the media and the politicians have become a little bit addicted to
9:46
chaos actually i think that like you know it's uh it's we sort of don't know what we're doing if
9:52
things are just plodding along i'm not suggesting that they should have been allowed to if things
9:56
weren't going right um but i yeah i don't uh i i think people like it much more than they think
10:05
it's like people always pretend that they don't like the the barracking of uh pmqs but that's
10:10
the thing people turn it tune in for and like we could all just pretend that we all just want it to
10:14
be really nice and everybody being kind um but in actual reality that is uh not uh the case
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