Nigel Farage is a British MP for Clacton and former MEP for South East England who has stood as a candidate representing eurosceptic parties UK Independence Party (UKIP) and Reform UK since 1994. He was a Member of the European Parliament representing South East England from the 1999 election until the British withdrawal from the European Union in 2020, winning re-election four times. Farage has stood for election to the House of Commons eight times, in six general elections and two by-elections, losing in every attempt until 2024 in Clacton. He was also a proponent of the UK leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum, in which the electorate voted to do so by 52% to 48%.Farage was voted UKIP leader in the September 2006 leadership election, and led them in the 2009 European Parliament election in which his party won the second-highest number of votes and seats after the Conservative Party. He resigned as leader later that year in order to concentrate on the 2010 general election. In late 2010, he was voted leader for a second time following the resignation of Lord Pearson of Rannoch. Farage led UKIP in the 2014 European Parliament election, in which his party won the most votes and seats; this was the first time since the December 1910 general election that Labour or the Conservatives did not get the most seats in a British nationwide election. He resigned as UKIP leader after the 2016 referendum.

The first election to the House of Commons that Farage contested was the 1994 Eastleigh by-election. After standing unsuccessfully for election in the next three general elections, all in a different constituency, he stood in the 2006 Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, in which he finished third with 8.1% of the vote. In the 2010 general election, Farage stood against the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, in the constituency of Buckingham, again finishing third with 17.4% of the vote. Five years later, he stood in the general election in the constituency of South Thanet, finishing second to the Conservative Craig Mackinlay, with 32.4% of the vote. He did not stand as a candidate for election in the 2019 general election. In 2024, Farage became Leader of Reform UK once more, ahead of the that year's general election, and won election for Parliament in Clacton.

In 2026, Farage unexpectedly resigned as MP for Clacton, declaring that 'the people of Clacton' would act as his judge in the matter of the parliamentary investigation into the possibility that Farage had received (or benefitted from) political donations in secret. In the following by-election, none of the major parties stood candidates. Farage was re-elected with a vote total comparable to his 2024 total. His main opponent, the political satirist Count Binface, received 9,455 votes, more than Farage had received in his six attempts at election (as an MP) prior to 2015. The parliamentary investigation into Farage's political donations was suspended for the Clacton by-election but has since resumed.

Summary

UK Parliament elections Date of election ConstituencyParty Votes % Result1994 by-electionEastleigh 9521.7Not elected1997 general electionSalisbury 3,3325.7Not elected2001 general electionBexhill and Battle 3,4747.8Not elected2005 general electionSouth Thanet 2,0795.0Not elected2006 by-electionBromley and Chislehurst 2,3478.1Not elected2010 general electionBuckingham 8,41017.4Not elected2015 general electionSouth Thanet 16,02632.4Not elected2024 general electionClacton 21,22546.2Elected2026 by-electionClacton 22,23963.34Elected European Parliament elections Date of election Constituency Party Votes % Result1994 European electionItchen, Test and Avon 12,4235.4Not elected1999 European electionSouth East England 144,5149.7Elected2004 European electionSouth East England 431,11119.5Elected2009 European electionSouth East England 440,00218.8Elected2014 European electionSouth East England 751,43932.1Elected2019 European electionSouth East England 915,68636.07Elected

UKIP leadership elections

Date of election Votes % Result2006 leadership election3,23945.0Elected2010 leadership election6,08560.5Elected

Elections to the House of Commons Elections to the House of Commons are decided by first-past-the-post voting. Each voter votes for one candidate, and the candidate who receives the most votes in each constituency becomes a Member of Parliament.

Elections to the European Parliament Up to and including the 1994 election, British elections to the European Parliament used the first-past-the-post system.

From 1999, all British elections to the European Parliament were done by a proportional representation system, in which each voter votes for one party in their constituency. The seats allotted for the constituency were then divided between the parties depending on their share of the vote.

Elected candidates are named. Brackets indicate the number of votes per seat won.

Leadership elections Source: 2006 UK Independence Party leadership electionCandidateVotes%Nigel Farage3,32945.0Richard Suchorzewski1,78224.1David Campbell Bannerman1,44319.5David Noakes85111.5Turnout7,405

2010 UK Independence Party leadership electionCandidateVotes%Nigel Farage6,08560.5Tim Congdon2,03720.3David Campbell Bannerman1,40414.0Winston McKenzie5305.3Turnout10,056

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