By Ann Higgins
Photo by Deniz Fuchidzhiev on Unsplash
Anyone here who was not disappointed by the defeat of Count Binface at the Clacton by-election? Anyone who did not enjoy his refreshingly novel approach to campaigning? I happily confess that I loved it and, though I was not expecting him to win, I harboured a tiny sliver of hope that he might just do it. However, it was not to be and now all we and the electors of Clacton have to look forward to are the occasional appearances of Mr Farage in the House of Commons and his constituents to even fewer visits to his constituency.
Still, it’s not all gloom and doom. As a new MP he will again have to declare all gifts or donations within the last 12 months (I wonder if those who supposedly advised him to resign were as clueless about that as they were allegedly about the continuation of the original inquiry if he were re-elected) so it will be interesting to compare that with what he has actually declared on the register of MPs’ interests since July 2025. Rarely will an entry on the register have been so eagerly awaited.
Nor are his problems restricted to the inquiry by the Parliamentary Commissioner of Standards into the dodgy gift of £5million which by now most people will probably be aware was given to him secretly by a Thai crypto billionaire in the lead-up to the 2024 general election. It has since transpired that, during the same period, two donations of £250,000 were made to ReformUK by Britain Means Business (a company controlled by Richard Tice, the Dubai-based MP for Boston and Skegness). This was shortly before the same company benefited from a £1million transfer from Fiona Cottrell, mother of convicted fraudster George Cottrell. Mr Cottrell has frequently been seen in the company of Mr Farage and, according to The Guardian, both he and Fiona Cottrell have been interviewed under caution by the police as part of an ongoing inquiry.
