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UK’s Nigel Farage to quit as lawmaker, seeks re-election to clear name

He faces a probe by parliament’s standards watchdog over a £5 million (US$6.7 million) gift from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire

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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage makes a statement to the media at the party headquarters in Millbank, central London, on Tuesday. Photo: via AP
Associated Press
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says he will quit as a lawmaker and seek re-election to clear his name over financial allegations linked to millions of dollars’ worth of donations.

“I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money,” Farage, a prominent ally of US President Donald Trump, said in a broadcast statement that did not take questions.

Farage faces a probe by parliament’s standards watchdog over a £5 million (US$6.7 million) gift from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Opposition lawmakers are seeking another investigation over donations from George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto-gambling entrepreneur who served a prison sentence for fraud in the US.

The probes could have led to Farage being suspended or expelled from parliament. He will pre-empt that process by triggering an election for his Clacton seat in eastern England.

“The people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” he said. “This will be a people-versus-the-establishment by-election.

“I will fight to win.”

Journalists in London watch on mobile phones as Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage makes a televised speech in which he resigned as MP for Clacton on Tuesday. Photo: AFP
Journalists in London watch on mobile phones as Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage makes a televised speech in which he resigned as MP for Clacton on Tuesday. Photo: AFP
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