Nigel Farage has been standing in British elections since 1994, when he narrowly beat Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony party into fourth place in a Commons byelection. He was elected five times to the European parliament before achieving his goal of abolishing his seat.
Finally, after 30 years of trying, he was elected to the Commons as member for Clacton in 2024. He resigned that hard-won seat in July after a parliamentary inquiry was launched into a £5m gift he accepted from a Thailand-based businessman shortly before the general election, but is standing again in the resulting byelection on Thursday. The other major parties are not putting up candidates, so the chief contenders, according to the limited polling, are Farage and Count Binface.
