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Nigel Farage could be set to run against just one other candidate, Count Binface, after all other major political parties confirmed they would not field candidates in the Clacton-on-Sea by-election. It comes after the Reform leader sensationally quit as MP and vowed to fight a "people versus establishment" by-election in the Essex seat amid a row over his finances and a parliamentary investigation. Farage denies any wrongdoing in the row over undeclared gifts and donations he received before he was elected. #nigelfarage #ukpolitics #labourparty #reform #uknews #lbc
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0:00
I'm going to now go to John from Cardiff
0:02
Oh, good morning, Jess. Thanks for taking my question. That's all right. John, you far away
0:07
Okay, I hope I can just suppress my anger on this and get my point out
0:14
This farce is a distraction and an evasion from what Farage is hiding
0:21
Now, in my opinion, and I've listened to Farage and Tice on the radios this morning
0:28
bleating on about the good people of Clapton or the final arbiters on this
0:36
Now then, this is totally wrong. If I'd committed a criminal offence
0:42
or if he had, I'd expect the police to investigate it. If I committed a tax offence
0:48
I'd expect the HMRC to investigate it. If I was in Parliament
0:55
I'd expect the Parliamentary Commission to do it. I would not put it out to a public vote because the people are not equipped
1:05
They do not have the resources to investigate or to judge this
1:10
And to be honest, most people, voters out there, have an IQ of a fruit fly, are expected to judge this
1:17
Now, John, I am going to say I think voters are much, much, actually much more astute than actually most people, including in Parliament
1:27
give them credit for and i've got every faith in the people of clacton to make their views
1:33
completely known but you're exactly right imagine like you you're facing a hr complaint at work
1:38
and um you you're facing a grievance and so now you decide that the way to get rid of that
1:44
grievance is to quit your job and then expect the exact same job back and for the grievance just to
1:48
have gone away the truth of the matter is john that he will face where if he is returned um to
1:55
parliament he will face the exact same parliamentary system uh where the standards commissioner will
2:02
look into the exact same thing uh so it it even if he pretends it's down to the people of clacton
2:09
it isn't the the process will continue after he comes back because there are questions to be
2:16
answered and he may be found to have done absolutely nothing wrong but if he's so confident
2:21
Just answer the questions, Nigel. John from Leicester, good Midlands, although east, not west
2:28
so not quite perfect, John. But I think maybe he has a different point of view
2:33
Yeah, yeah. Yes, if you're so sure and you just think it's a big political stunt
2:40
and game he's playing, take him on. Take him on. Put him out of Parliament then
2:44
Put him out of Parliament. And then all your prayers are answered. But I can't, John, because two years ago, John
2:50
I don't know if you know this, but I stood in an election and the good people of Birmingham Yardley elected me
2:54
so I've got a job to do for the next three years in Birmingham Yardley, where I come from, unlike Nigel Farage in Clacton
3:00
The Labour Party, you know what I mean. Don't play dumb. Don't play dumb
3:05
Look, Jess, if you honestly think, take probably by the Parliament, you'd all be happy, everyone would be happy
3:10
So take what you know full well you've not got a chance. And the people of Clacton would stick two fingers up to you
3:17
and the government and the establishment. and that is the truth. A bit like Nigel Farage
3:23
before he was elected to Clacton. I don't know Clacton that well
3:27
so I not sure how the good people of Clacton will put their fingers up but I welcome any of them to give me a call But what I would say is that the major political parties have all said very very quickly I think
3:39
the Tories were the first out of the trap and I think they came second in the election in 2024
3:47
and so they would be obviously the nearest competitor. I'm not going to pretend that in
3:52
Clacton just like in Birmingham Yardley Nigel Farage would absolutely not be able to beat me
3:57
I'm not going to pretend, John, that the Labour Party is Clacton's, you know, is necessarily a place that we would target
4:07
That is the nature of politics. However, I have to say, I think that it makes Nigel Farage look pretty stupid that all of the major political parties are pointing out exactly what this is
4:20
and that is a circus, to give Nigel Farage attention. Don't you think that Nigel Farage should wait and find out what's the outcome of a completely democratic and completely legitimate process
4:33
Do you honestly believe the stitch-ups that go on, you know, I've not got a lot of faith in that process
4:38
So you think that there's stitch-ups in the parliamentary standards, such as? Well, you know, yeah, yeah, you know, this is what he says, the old system's rigged again
4:49
So it is what he says, but John, I just wonder, have you got any evidence that the standards process in Parliament is a stitch-up
4:58
Okay, you could argue, let that roll. I get why he's done it
5:03
You know, yes, I'm not the biggest Nigel Farage fan. Got any mates who ever gave you five million quid, John
5:10
No, I haven't. Oh, God, no. Where do we get these pals? Thailand, crypto people
5:17
We should go to Thailand, John. we're wasted in the midlands loving or hating but the thing with reform they are there's a lot of
5:24
people that are in the real world that know how to create wealth they would create businesses
5:29
that earn money where there's no one on the labor they've got no idea right and of what we need to
5:35
get growth it's been proven right what rachel reese has done killed the economy nic killed
5:42
young people's jobs killed opportunity it's been a disaster she came in saying growth growth growth
5:48
We need growth. Where's that gone now? So what's Nigel Farage's plan for growth then for the country
5:54
Or just for Clacton for now? I'll tell you what, Geoff, what I believe, you'll have someone at last
5:58
and you've never seen it in the Theresa May or Boris, right? You'll have someone, if he got into number 10
6:04
that believed in the idea of Brexit and could push the buttons to get the deals
6:12
And, you know, Europe is a dying, dying place. that the growth is in Asia, in China, in India, these other places
6:21
I mean, the growth is coming from Nigel Farage from Thailand, it would seem, into his bank account
6:30
But look, John, I think that you make some interesting points. And look, Nigel Farage has the opportunity to become the Prime Minister already
6:40
because he already is the Member of Parliament for Clacton. It's a thing he's giving up, not that I'm pushing him out of
6:45
It's lovely to talk to you anyway, John, from the slightly less good East Midlands to the West Midlands
6:51
Is it Gabriel from Hackney or Gabriel? Gabriel is good. Gabriel is good
6:56
Hi Jess, how's it going? Thanks for taking my call. First thing in the morning that I heard this and I thought I could help but call in
7:01
You know the thing is I think one thing we overlooking here is that the guy has absolutely never had an interest in being Prime minister um uh he doesn have an interest really in any kind of politics and he uses his whole circus act
7:15
he does pretty much even you know if you remember brexit was the same thing you know wearing the
7:18
union jack waving the union jack flag in the european parliament and so on and so forth he
7:23
does it to gain interest and to show that he can actually get his own way he managed to persuade an
7:27
entire country to vote against its own interest uh and and you know he's using this to get private
7:33
contracts you know if i was a business that uh that was doing some kind of dodgy practices or
7:37
something i'll probably hire niger france to find a way to get out of it you know he's a very good
7:41
operator i mean look he's got more experience than probably any of you in parliament he's been that for 30 years so he knows exactly what he's doing um but to be honest you know does he really
7:51
want the scrutiny of being a prime minister some you know every single day he's clearly he doesn't
7:55
and he can't handle it well yeah why is he even going for the job he's not i think you're absolutely
7:59
right and like when you say he can't handle it I think that's really really interesting because
8:03
what I saw yesterday when Nigel Farage came out and said that he was going to cause the
8:09
by-election what I saw was a scared man a man having a tantrum a hissy fit basically it reminded
8:16
me of my children when they don't get to their own way and I think you're you you hit exactly on
8:23
the right point is that if he doesn't like the scrutiny of being the leader of a parliamentary
8:29
party that I think now has maybe like eight people in it since they had
8:33
the turncoats from the Tory party, since they took all the Tories
8:37
like Mr Jenrick and others and Suella. All those other amazing people. Yeah, there's amazing people. I bet
8:43
Kemi was sad to see them go. But like if he doesn't like the scrutiny
8:49
you get from being the leader of a political party with like
8:52
eight members of parliament, he would absolutely hate. Now, politics isn't fun
8:59
Gabriel, it can often be a lot of scrutiny. You get a lot of phone calls on a Friday evening for the Sunday papers
9:06
and your heart stops. And it's not much fun, but it is the job you enter into
9:11
And I personally think that Nigel Farage might have to grow a pair
9:16
Absolutely. I think one thing we have to also remember, just remember with the Brexit vote
9:20
before Brexit he was all over the place. As soon as this, well, in my opinion
9:24
I'm sure many of us, this idiotic decision came through where we voted ourselves out of Brexit
9:28
sanctioning ourselves, he was nowhere to be seen. He had to be forced back into politics, if we all remember
9:34
I mean, Richard Tice basically begged him to come and lead the Reform Party. So he disappeared, completely shook his hands of all responsibility
9:42
that he had to do this and said, well, it's the other party. Now he's a Conservative, we've got to execute it
9:47
He had no ideas, no plan, no interest. He used that to show people he could get his own way
9:52
And that's what he likes doing. He doesn't care about leading anything. He just wants to make private money
9:58
But they think, yeah, I mean, look, he's obviously very successful at making private money
10:03
So he's doing an absolutely brilliant job of that. So successfully making himself incredibly rich
10:12
But I'm afraid to say that all Nigel Farage has done, and you're right, he's done it for 30 years, is he just breaks things
10:20
I don't know what he did to help make Brexit successful, even
10:24
And I don't know what he has done to make sure that, for example, you know, like I'm not queuing for hours when I go on my holidays to Italy in the next few weeks
10:34
Like just like like now I have to pay for my roaming charges when I on holiday and things like that What has Nigel Farage actually done for ordinary people in the wake of it But thank you very much Gabriel Sarah from Brighton Sarah you the first woman I talking to this morning Oh that really good I a big fan of your
10:52
women as well. And I've been in the party for 45 years. But anyway, that's not what I'm calling
10:59
What I'm calling is I am not sure whether people have put two and two together because Nigel Farage
11:06
Well, he is saying, isn't he, that the standards committee is not relevant
11:10
You know, I'm above this. This is not appropriate. I mean, in effect, if he were in power, Jeff
11:18
I think he would remove some of these checks and balances, a bit like Trump's doing in America
11:24
And we would then be vulnerable to the sort of corruption that he appears to be involved in
11:31
Yeah, I mean, that's a real worry. I want to talk to people from this conclusion, yeah. It's a big worry. It absolutely is a big worry. And there's a number of different standards. So if you're a minister, there's a different, there's ministerial standards and a commissioner for that. If you're in Parliament, there's standards for that. In the Lords, they have it. These are systems that are there
11:51
and look then it's not fun uh necessarily to go through it um but it is like you know sometimes
11:58
it's minor breaches of the rules delaying like forgetting to declare something and you go through
12:03
it or you might have used a an envelope with a parliamentary insignia on to send it to your
12:08
personal mate and that's not allowed it goes from that right up to i mean boris johnson went through
12:14
one of the standards processes and he himself also, when he was going through
12:21
it, people don't like it up them and actually there is a real worry that people would get rid of the
12:27
things that are, they're not partisan, they are there for everybody, everybody has to go
12:33
through them the exact same way and it's just like you say, I think there's a real risk that
12:39
you just get rid of those sorts of standards and... That's what I think
12:43
he would do, Jeff. And actually, Harriet Harmon gave a fantastic explanation on Help You See yesterday, or
12:49
it was Radio 4, I forget which, about how the whole thing works
12:53
Oh, yeah, I mean... The procedure is really robust. It's very, very thorough. Also, you are
12:59
given the documents, when it happens, when you're going through, and like I say, I have been
13:03
through it, you are given the documents a number of weeks out
13:07
so that you can respond long before they get published. So I suspect
13:10
actually, that Nigel Farage's reaction this week is down to a couple of things. I imagine he'd had maybe the first draft of what
13:18
the standards commissioner was going to propose in the first complaint about the five million pounds
13:23
and he didn't like what he maybe read. I don't know, that is pure speculation but having been
13:29
through the process I know long before it gets published it gets sent to you and you're having
13:33
those conversations with the commissioner and you know the commissioner and the team
13:38
are that they're not that like they're being polite and kind to you they're not being difficult
13:43
and actually one of the ways that you show contrition in the system is by just taking part
13:50
in the process uh taking on what they say uh responding to them in time like you know this is
13:57
all credit in the bank if you show that you're happy to be up for scrutiny Nigel Farage has done
14:02
the exact opposite and he's going to face the exact same questions if he is returned
14:07
as the Member of Parliament for Clacton. But you're absolutely right, Sarah, we have to
14:13
be worried about people who want to break down the things that protect our voters
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