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The election was triggered because a populist politician being investigated for corruption decided to step down, triggering an election so that he could run aga
by robin_reala 3mo ago
The election was triggered because a populist politician being investigated for corruption decided to step down, triggering an election so that he could run again to theoretically prove that he was who the people wanted regardless of the corruption investigation. This backfired when every other party refused to field a candidate (that is, to go along with his plan), apart from Binface. So Farage’s “me vs the establishment” commentary is not going as he expected.
- bluehatbrit 3mo agoIt's also worth noting that he's being investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Committee. Now that he has stepped down as an MP, that investigation would ordinarily be paused (and is from what I can tell). It would be resumed if he won but he gets a while to organise things before he has to face them again.
- manarth 3mo agoAnd if the Standards Committee find sufficient wrong-doing to suspend an MP for 10 days or more, the suspension automatically triggers a recall-petition. If the recall-petition is signed by 10% or more of voters in that MP's constituency, this triggers a by-election. So there's a reasonable possibility that once the investigation concludes, there will be another by-election in Clacton.