REFORM boss Nigel Farage today announced he was forcing a by-election in his Clacton constituency amid growing concerns about his secret multi-millionaire funding.

After a video address without reporters present, the hard-right leader said he would quit as an MP to trigger the contest, in which he will seek re-election on a “people versus the establishment” platform.

His move was denounced by TUC general secretary Paul Nowak as “a cynical political stunt to distract from his dodgy dealings with crypto crooks and super rich aristocrats.”

“Whether it’s multi-million pound bungs or fully funded apparatchiks, Reform’s undeclared cronyism stinks,” Mr Nowak said.

The TUC leader also claimed that Mr Farage was “jumping before he’s pushed” as investigations multiply into purportedly personal donations from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne and convicted fraudster George Cottrell.

His tactics were “straight out of the Trumpian playbook — attacking the media and anyone daring to ask legitimate questions about his finances,” Mr Nowak added.

Stand up to Racism pledged an all-out fight to defeat Reform in Clacton.  

The campaign’s co-convener Weyman Bennett said: “Farage wants this by-election to be a coronation. We say it should become the biggest anti-Reform campaign Britain has seen in a parliamentary by-election.

“We are putting Farage on notice. Clacton will not be a free ride. Wherever Reform tries to campaign, anti-racists will be there with the facts, the arguments and the movement to oppose them.”

Mr Farage’s gamble comes after news emerged that he had taken donations from Mr Cottrell, a Montenegro-based Reform backer, in the period immediately before he was first elected for Clacton in 2024.

The donations have been referred to parliamentary authorities and the electoral commission for possible breach of electoral law. 

Labour Party chair Anna Turley wrote to the Electoral Commission urging an investigation, saying “it is now abundantly clear that Mr Farage may have not only broken parliamentary rules, he may have broken the law.”

The Commons is already probing the separate £5 million received from Thailand-based Mr Harborne, which Mr Farage yesterday compared to a lottery win.

He reverted to claims that these sums were needed for his personal security, claiming he had been at risk in various incidents, and added that he was not required to register either gift on the grounds that they were purely personal.

The by-election, which Reform has said it will fund, will take place amid indications that Reform’s progress has stalled, even though it retains a lead in the polls. 

It failed in both recent Commons by-elections around Manchester and has been losing some support to Restore Britain, a further right party.

Mr Farage said: “I could go out and try and make some real big money. I could go to the USA, where I’ve got plenty of offers. 

“And then I thought, why should I be judged by Sky News and their ilk? Why should they be the people that decide my fate when I have done nothing wrong?

“Now I’ve decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions. This will be a people versus the Establishment by-election.”

Taking his cue from US President Donald Trump, Mr Farage also claimed it was “like living in a communist country” because Labour was banning large donations from overseas residents.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “This is not Nigel Farage vs the Establishment but the Establishment’s man against truth, honesty and decency.

“The truth is that he is a grifter brought down by his own grifting. He has never been a man of the people, but a representative of the wealthy and the Establishment.”

And Transport union TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust called Mr Farage’s move “nothing more than end-of-the-pier-show posturing.”

“The people of Clacton badly need an MP who is on their side but in truth Farage has been all but absent as a local MP since being elected two years ago,” she added, pledging backing to Labour in the forthcoming by-election.

Outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that “it’s obvious why he’s doing it — he is up to his neck in sleaze.”

In 2024 Mr Farage won in Clacton with 46 per cent of the vote, with the Tories as runners-up on 28 per cent. Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Greens got 25 per cent between them.

The seat was previously won in a by-election by Douglas Carswell for Ukip, one of Mr Farage’s previous political vehicles.