The Reform UK leader's statement follows reports he failed to declare financial support from an ally. He has also faced questions over an unregistered £5m gift from a donor.
  • Tenebris Nox@feddit.ukEnglish
    201·
    6 days ago

    Opportunity here for Greens, Labour, LibDems to do the right thing and agree a single candidate they will all campaign for. It won’t happen of course because the inter-party fighting is a necessary part of the distraction pantomime.

    • TheEmpireStrikesDakEnglish
      14·
      6 days ago

      If no one else stands, Five Mil Farridge wins by default and the investigation into his dodgy dealings will continue.

      Speaking at a Nato summit in Ankara, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accused Farage of a “desperate stunt” to avoid scrutiny of his finances.

      He said: "This is a desperate stunt from Nigel Farage and it’s obvious why he’s doing it - he is up to his neck in sleaze.

      Honestly, it might be the real 4D chess move. If he wins, he can’t escape scrutiny. Now whether that’s worth it, given he’ll suffer no real consequences, that’s the question.

    • thehatfox@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      6·
      6 days ago

      I’ve heard rumours that Labour are considering not running an official party candidate, to make room for someone who may be willing to stand as an independent candidate. Someone who could run as on unaffiliated and somewhat anti-establishment, but also anti-Farage platform. No idea who that could actually be though.

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      6 days ago

      Looks like he’s going to run pretty much unopposed, so he’ll win and the investigations into his finances will resume. The nasty little fascist just played himself.

      How? This is the man that steered the entirety of the political landscape of the UK for the entire 21st century. From LBC to Brexit, he manipulated everything from no Euro to Brexit, almost every catchphrase by the right wingers in the UK came from his fucking mouth, he’s the king of “elf and safety gone mad” “bendy bananas” and “Beurocrats in brussels”.

      What, they are going to investigate him, give him a slap on the wrist and have him come up with the next harebrained racist idea that’s going maipulate the masses while not being a part of parliment; IF the investigation rules against him in 20 years time?

      This isn’t fucking Brazil where they are two steps removed from disemboweling Bolsonaro in the Maracanã. Farage isn’t fucking Jeffry Archer.

      • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtfEnglish
        6·
        6 days ago

        If he wins and Parliament suspends him he can be subject to a recall petition. At that point he’ll either have to walk away or fight a proper by-election, this time with him being a proven crook. Maybe the Clacton mouthbeathers will re-elect him regardless but it’s not going to do him any favors on a national level.

        • Skullgrid@lemmy.worldEnglish
          22·
          6 days ago

          Oh NO! How will he ruin britain without becoming prime minster???

          He had to be in power in parliment in order to make brexit happen, to keep britain out of the euro and enact the “Send those grimy brown people back to africa, I don’t care if they’re from the Philippines, it’s all the same rubbish” plan of international diplomacy.

          What, he gets kicked out of parliment and continues to enact more policies than sitting governnments? How does that work for everyone else in britain?

          • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtfEnglish
            6·
            6 days ago

            I’m not sure why you’re being so hostile. Farage has sold himself as a “man of the people” fighting for the little (white) guy against the corrupt establishment.

            That narrative is now in tatters. It won’t cause every one of his supporters to ditch him, but it’s not going to help him, is it?

            • Skullgrid@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              6 days ago

              Because it’s obvious that anyone thinking that anything that affects Farage in terms of being an MP or not does not make a blind bit of difference in the amount of damage that prick does to the UK. He wasn’t in charge of ANYTHING when he got all his tentpole ideas implemented by various governments, and if he isn’t in charge of ANYTHING when all this shit ends, it won’t limit him in the slightest.

              People need to wake up to this shit.

              • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtfEnglish
                41·
                6 days ago

                I disagree. You’re basing your argument on him continuing to have the same levels of support from the public and media. That’s hardly a given, is it? Even sections of the right wing media that have blown so much smoke up his cloaca for years are starting to turn on him.

                • phutatorius@lemmy.zipEnglish
                  1·
                  6 days ago

                  I doubt if the billionaire media owners acquired their fortunes any more honestly than Farage got his much smaller one, and they’ll continue to amplify his every brain fart. And as long as Reform is targeting people hated by the vast herds of gammon and the hooligans, they’ll keep supporting Farage. They don’t care if he’s bent. They’d be a rich cunt like him if they could. He’s a crook, but they see him as their crook.

                • Skullgrid@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  6 days ago

                  and are they likely to turn away from the stuff he wants to have happen, and will they revert the things he made happen?

      • ohulancutash@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        6 days ago

        He’d like you to think that, but he’s been riding on coattails all along. Brexit, for instance, was Daniel Hannan’s “achievement”, farage was just yapping on the sidelines.

    • tabris@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      6 days ago

      He’s using the by-election to pause the investigation into his finances, and hoping to use an election win as a mandate and proof that he did nothing wrong, because a crook could never win a fair election, right?!

      The only way the other parties can respond to this, which is what they’re all now doing, is to not stand a candidate, thereby no vote is cast that can be used as Farage’s mandate/retribution, and the investigation will continue, which will hopefully lead to him being removed from his seat, and a proper by-election will then be run.

      Basically, Farage is once again trying to distract from his wonton corruption by playing political theatre, distracting the masses, and giving himself a way to save face, or even turn it around to a win.

      • phutatorius@lemmy.zipEnglish
        41·
        6 days ago

        trying to distract from his wonton corruption

        But that’s just what the mandoo.

  • FarceOfWill@infosec.pubEnglish
    51·
    6 days ago

    He really wants to reverse the narrative of reform failing like pathetic losers in Andys byelection.

    Also desperate for attention after everyone has been focused on labour. It really is very sad, and a waste of time.

  • nialv7@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    6 days ago

    that was… surprisingly easy? oh wait, he is going to stand in the byelection…