‘If you find yourself stuck in politics, the thing to do is start a fight’
In the great work of historical fiction, Imperium, Robert Harris imagines the Roman statesman Cicero observing that “if you find yourself stuck in politics, the thing to do is start a fight.” Clacton may be a far cry from the ancient senate in Rome, but Nigel Farage has followed the playbook.
Facing a parliamentary standards investigation into his finances and wounded by brilliant investigative journalism, the Reform leader is resigning as an MP to fight a “people versus the establishment” by election on the Essex seafront. When Farage announced yesterday morning that he would soon make a statement on his “future in public life,” the commentariat went into overdrive.
Adam Boulton suggested on Sky News that it could be related to his health while other pundits speculated that the permanent insurgent was going to call it a day. One sympathetic commentator said “Reform is bigger than one man” as debate turned to who would succeed Farage.
In fact, as the statement made clear, Reform is Farage and Farage is Reform. It has felt in recent weeks as if he’s been on the back foot, facing intense scrutiny about a £5m personal gift and the support he’s enjoyed from other donors and controversial friends. Faced with a Westminster standards investigation that wouldn’t report until the autumn, he looked set to endure a summer on the sidelines while Andy Burnham enjoyed a honeymoon period. Instead, he wants to spend his summer whipping up the voters of Clacton into an anti-establishment rage before returning to Westminster armed with a fresh personal mandate. That’s the plan, anyway. But who will he be up against? The Tories, Labour and Lib Dems have all said they won’t take part.
When David Davis triggered a by election on the issue of civil liberties in 2008, Labour and the Lib Dems ignored him. He saw off challenges from the Miss Great Britain Party and the Church of the Militant Elvis Party, but ended up looking like a bit of a crank. Albeit a principled one. Will Farage emerge from an August by election stronger, or any closer to government? Or will he simply remind the doubters that his is a party of grievance and protest? It is a high risk manoeuvre with no obvious benefit beyond denying Burnham a quiet first month in office.
But as the fictional Cicero says in Imperium, “it is only when a fight is on, and everything is in motion, that you can hope to see your way through.”