Nigel Farage offers to foot £200,000 bill for by-election he triggered

“Given that we asked for this by-election in the first place, it’s only right that we pay for it.”

The Reform UK leader announced he would quit and trigger a by-election on Tuesday, amid mounting pressure over unregistered donations of cash and support.

He is facing a parliamentary standards investigation over a £5 million gift from Reform donor Christopher Harborne before becoming an MP, and a potential further probe after reports of undeclared funding for security and staffing in the year before he was elected, provided by long-term ally George Cottrell.

A by-election in Clacton could cost more than £200,000.

The limit set for the constituency in 2024, when Mr Farage was voted in as the MP, was £237,422.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called Mr Farage “self-obsessed” in an earlier call for him to pay for the vote himself.

“He has done nothing for his constituents and instead focused on lining his own pockets. The people of Clacton deserve better than a rubbish Trump tribute act.

“It would be a crime to waste taxpayers’ hard-earned cash on this Farage vanity project. He should pay for it himself out of the millions he’s grifted.”

Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe, leader of the Restore Britain party, accused Mr Farage of “making a mockery of our entire democratic process”.

The former Reform UK MP posted on X: “He should have declared that five million pounds. He knows it. We all know it.

“Now he is going to weaponise a by-election to distract from that. This is going to cost the taxpayer a fortune. A quarter of a million pounds.

“Eye-watering sums of money. Think about what that money could do for the people of Clacton. Will Farage fund it out of his own pocket?

“Because he bloody well should.”