Jul 9, 2026 · 28 min · 9 segments
Nigel Farage resigned as an MP on Tuesday to trigger a byelection in which he's going to run in, and waited for the establishment to line up against him. They didn't. A handful of minor parties have…
Sinéad O'CarrollPanelist
Christine BohanHost
Christina FinnPanelist
He announced his decision in a fairly heated and emotional statement on Tuesday.
Most of the political parties have said they're not going to play ball with this.
Is this going the way Farage wanted it to? It feels like the reaction to it has been perhaps at a step with what he might have expected.
Yeah, when I first heard that he was putting himself forward for the by-election and then that there'd be no contesters for it, my initial thing was like, oh, my God, I can't believe these parties don't have a backbone to go up against him.
But then when you kind of maybe step back and see the point they're trying to make in terms of this is a bit of a farce, we don't want to engage with what kind of play acting perhaps Nigel Farage is up to here.
But at the same time, I still feel like it feels like such a joke of British politics.
But when I'm trying to look at like other parties, you know, serious mainstream parties and their rationale for not putting someone forward, I'm kind of like, God, if they put someone forward, would it split, you know, would it... take airtime off Farage and what he's trying to do? Is it, you know, would it make it more serious? Would it give platform someone to give an alternative here? He was pretty successful in his last election there.
He announced his decision in a fairly heated and emotional statement on Tuesday.
Most of the political parties have said they're not going to play ball with this.
Is this going the way Farage wanted it to? It feels like the reaction to it has been perhaps at a step with what he might have expected.
Yeah, when I first heard that he was putting himself forward for the by-election and then that there'd be no contesters for it, my initial thing was like, oh, my God, I can't believe these parties don't have a backbone to go up against him.
But then when you kind of maybe step back and see the point they're trying to make in terms of this is a bit of a farce, we don't want to engage with what kind of play acting perhaps Nigel Farage is up to here.
But at the same time, I still feel like it feels like such a joke of British politics.
But when I'm trying to look at like other parties, you know, serious mainstream parties and their rationale for not putting someone forward, I'm kind of like, God, if they put someone forward, would it split, you know, would it... take airtime off Farage and what he's trying to do? Is it, you know, would it make it more serious? Would it give platform someone to give an alternative here? He was pretty successful in his last election there.
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