Farage is likely to win in Clacton but can his credibility survive? | Peter Walker

While the Reform leader casts himself as the victim questions about his finances are unlikely to disappear

• Farage quits as an MP amid scrutiny of his finances

For Nigel Farage, a year that was progressing quite nicely started to go wrong when the Guardian revealed he had received an undeclared gift of 5m from a crypto billionaire. Just 10 weeks later, he has been pushed into perhaps one of the biggest gambles of his political career.

That gamble is seemingly not with his role as an MP. Farage took more than 45% of the vote in Clacton in 2024, and the heavily Reform-friendly constituency was always likely to elect him again, even before the bulk of the other parties announced they would stand aside in a byelection they have dismissed as a stunt.