𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

I have resigned as Member of Parliament for Clacton-on-Sea, and will stand in the forthcoming by-election, in order to ask the biggest question in British politics today.

In our democracy, who should decide who gets to sit as an MP or form a government? Should it be the voters of seats such as Clacton? Or should it be the British establishment, through its political agents, media mouthpieces and parliamentary committees?

Two years ago, being elected MP for Clacton was one of the proudest moments of my life. If you’d told me just a couple of years earlier that Reform UK would go from being a start-up that barely existed to becoming Britain’s largest political party, I simply wouldn’t have believed you.

Since that moment, we have led in over 350 national opinion polls, won elections in former Tory strongholds and ex-Labour heartlands, and are on course to make history at the next general election.

But the bigger we have become, the harder the establishment has fought to stop us.

Since I was elected, this Labour government, their friends in the media and the whole establishment have done everything they can to destroy me, my family, the party, our donors and the millions who support us.

They have made it increasingly difficult for me to provide the security my family needs, while publishing stories that make that security even more necessary. My home has been attacked. My family has been targeted. And I have had enough! The media ask why I seem so angry in response to their slurs and slanders. Ask yourself, how would you feel?

To make matters worse, the establishment is now seeking to rewrite the rules of democracy itself. They have introduced votes at 16 to stop Reform (though they might find our young people are not all the patsies they imagine). They are changing the electoral system for contests such as the Greater Manchester mayor to stop Reform.

They are changing the donation rules to stop Reform. The Labour government even tried – with the connivance of the Conservatives – to cancel many of the May local elections, until Reform fought back, took the government to court and stopped them on behalf of the people. Every single move has been carefully calculated to make it harder for us to win.

Week after week, politicians and the media have plotted together to plant negative stories about me with the intention of having me suspended as an MP. Their aim has been to force a by-election in the hope that the people of Clacton will vote against me.

That’s why I have resigned and I am calling that by-election myself now. I am asking for a mandate to continue this fight. Let’s see if the media lies will win, or the truth.

As for the mainstream parties who have said they will not stand in this election – it’s an insult to the people of Clacton. The Conservatives conspired with Labour to cancel the local elections, they refuse to call for a general election and they will not stand in this by-election. What is the point of them?

They are showing contempt for the voters and are running scared of this by-election because they won’t like the result.

This vote in a few weeks is about whether ordinary people still have the power to stand up to an establishment that believes it can change the rules whenever it fears losing.

This is a contest between the people of Clacton and the entire political establishment. The future of our democracy depends on who wins.