It’s possible to support better security for Nigel Farage and increased scrutiny of his finances

Twenty minutes before she was killed in her own home, Ann Widdecombe gave an interview to a Christian radio station in which she discussed the ongoing scrutiny of Nigel Farage’s finances. A week which ended so horribly with the news of the former MP’s death had begun with the leader of Reform UK announcing his decision to resign his seat and force a by-election in Clacton. British politics has become an increasingly fractious and angry place so there was some welcome light relief when it emerged Farage’s main opponent would be Count Binface. But if it looked as if silly season had begun, then the news of Widdecombe’s death, which is currently being investigated by counter-terrorism officers, jolted us from our collective reverie. 

Media interest in Farage’s finances began in earnest in April when it emerged he had failed to declare a £5m gift from the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne given shortly before the Reform leader U-turned on his decision not to stand in the general election. Further revelations were published earlier this month, including reports Farage failed to declare benefits including staff, security and the use of a five-storey house near Buckingham Palace from convicted fraudster George Cottrell. When Sky News doorstepped Farage’s daughter at a property where he’d previously been registered to vote and had himself been pictured, the Reform leader snapped. 

“I will not tolerate intimidation of my family,” Farage said in a video statement. “I will not tolerate the location of where they live being revealed. I will not tolerate any of my family being endangered because of what I choose to do in public life. So yes, you can ask – am I angry? Well, I’ve never been angrier in my life.”

Setting up what he described as a “people vs the establishment” by-election, Farage said the voters would be the “judges” of his actions. But while his resignation as an MP pauses an ongoing parliamentary standards probe into the gift he received from Harborne, that investigation would resume if Farage was to be re-elected to the Commons – as it should. 

It’s possible to both believe Farage when he says his personal safety is at threat and support press and parliamentary scrutiny of his financial affairs.

The killing of Widdecombe, who served in John Major’s government in the 1990s and was more recently a spokesperson for Reform, has once again brought into sharp focus the dangers faced by those in public life. It’s now a decade since the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by far-right terrorist Thomas Mair. What should have been a horrific one-off was followed by the murder of Conservative MP David Amess during a constituency surgery in 2021 by Islamic State-inspired extremist Ali Harbi Ali.  

Just days before her death, Widdecombe and her Devon home were shown in a TV antiques programme. It would not have been difficult for anyone who saw that footage to work out where she lived. It makes Farage’s uneasiness about his own home (or the one currently being used by his adult daughter) being put on camera understandable, particularly given figures from Reform showing the party’s leader has received nearly 600 death threats in the past few months, mainly on X (formerly Twitter).

The malign influence of social media is a large part of the reason why politics has “darkened” in the past decade, to use Andy Burnham’s word. But another is the rhetoric used by some of those in frontline politics. Nadim Zahawi, a former education secretary and Chancellor, has recently spoken of a “deep state” conspiracy against Farage, echoing the Trumpian reinvention of former prime minister Liz Truss who called The Times a “disgrace” for its reporting of the Reform leader’s finances. In a radio interview where he struggled to make a case for Farage’s decision to force a by-election, Zahawi said: “The deep state are after Nigel.”

Similar language has come from Robert Jenrick, the former Tory immigration minister who defected to Reform earlier this year and now appears to spend his time touring TV and radio stations giving interviews each more belligerent than the last. In an angry confrontation with former political editor Adam Boulton on Sky News, Jenrick said: “The political establishment – of which Sky News is clearly a part – is trying to hound Nigel Farage to try to get him to leave public life.” We’ve seen the same playbook – the attempt to undermine faith in the media and in institutions – deployed in the US, a country which is sadly no stranger to political violence. 

The Clacton by-election takes place on 13 August. While Farage faces stiff competition from Count Binface and Mr Fishfinger among others, he’s almost certain to be returned to parliament. When he does re-take his seat in the Commons, we should take the issue of his financial arrangements as seriously as the question of his taxpayer-funded security.