Nigel Farage’s Clacton by-election may cost the taxpayer a quarter of a million pounds
Taxpayers will foot the bill for Farage's costly by-election stunt
The by-election Nigel Farage triggered in Clacton may cost around a quarter of a million pounds in taxpayer money, according to a council official.
Last month, Farage resigned as the MP for Clacton amid mounting scrutiny over an undeclared £5 million gift he received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in 2024.
Rather than waiting for the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to conclude his investigation into the donation, Farage triggered the by-election, saying that voters, not political opponents or “the Establishment” , should decide his future as a politician.
If Farage is re-elected next Thursday (13 August), the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner will resume his investigation, which may trigger another costly by-election.
Farage will face 33 other candidates in the vote next week, meaning the local council has to print what is believed to be the longest ballot paper in British political history.
The 90cm ballot paper costs four times more to print and post than regular ballot papers, Tendring District Council has said.
As reported by The Mirror, chief executive of Tendring District Council, Ian Davidson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve got 34 candidates, which is the most number of candidates any parliamentary election has ever had.
“And the ballot paper is just under a metre long. The cost of actually printing, running, and posting things like that is about four times the cost of the General Election where we had five candidates.”
Asked how much the by-election would cost, Davidson said: “We don’t yet – we’re anticipating around a quarter of a million, about £250,000.”
Davidson said that most of the cost of the by-election will be paid for by the government, “but not all”.
He said: “Tendring council will have to pay some of the cost because we’re having to put a lot of additional measures in place which are not what would be in the normal parliamentary by-election costs.”
He also said the council will not be using a stage to announce the results of the count – due to the sheer number of candidates.
Farage initially offered for Reform to pay for the by-election, but the proposal was quickly rejected as it would undermine the independence of the election.
A Labour source told The Mirror: “A political figure paying for a by-election he is standing in would clearly undermine the independence of the democratic process. It’s baffling that he can’t see that.”
They added: “He cannot just buy his way out of the mess he’s got himself into. This by-election will be conducted along the same rules as all elections are in the UK. Farage will have to take responsibility for making taxpayers pay the cost of his latest ego trip.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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