[Samanfur]

Question, though: could he still stand if the Standards Committee rule against him, or is he trying to pre-empt them?

Absolutely trying to pre-empt. I don't think that they can touch him if he has a clean break between two terms as an MP and the infraction in the first one, but can anyone confirm that before I go looking for Erskine May's thoughts and come back?

[Abernathy]

Interesting - Michael Crick is reminding us of the time that the Tory MP David Davis (remember him?) resigned his seat in Haltemprice & Howden in order to fight it again in a by-election that he said was about freedom of speech or some such bollocks. The other parties dismissed it as a facile stunt and I think mostly even declined to stand candidates, and Davis won the by-election easily, so it meant nothing and was a total waste of everybody’s time.

This might well happen again in Clacton. Fargle is taking quite a risk. He clearly anticipates that he was going to face a by-election anyway as a result of the standards investigation , and is gambling on jumping the gun and trying to frame it as a Fargle vs The Establishment crusade.

Bizarre.

[Watchman]

If he gets back in, he’ll think he’s exonerated….er, No! If he looses it will be the “Establishment” ganged up on me, and now I’m off to Merika.

[Tubby Isaacs]

David Miliband isn’t going to get selected, or win. It needs a blue collar version of Martin Bell.

[RedSparrows]

Does he even remember where Clacton is?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Does this resignation stop the investigation? Or can it restart if he comes back?

[Tubby Isaacs]

What’s the advantage of resigning now and playing the cards he could have played anyway?

[Samanfur]

David Miliband isn't going to give up the private sector for an MP's salary and workload again, you mean.

[Crabcakes]

My friend who is a parliamentary expert thinks Farage may have misread or misunderstood the code. The investigation will be suspended but will resume should he be re-elected.

[Samanfur]

What’s the advantage of resigning now and playing the cards he could have played anyway?

If he's re-elected, he Parliamentary Standards Committee can't touch him for anything that happened before he resigned.

EDIT: Cheers for the clarification, Crabcakes.

[Samanfur]

Apparently, he's under another investigation for undeclared gifts, as well.

[soulboy]

David Miliband isn’t going to get selected, or win. It needs a blue collar version of Martin Bell.

Danny Dyer? The hustings would be dynamite.

[Boiler]

They'd be very sweary....

[Samanfur]

Danny "Just cut her face so nobody will want her" Dyer?

He might have reinvented himself as a family man, but I don't doubt that journalists remember that quote, and would have a few more things that they were sitting on.

Of course, it'd probably make him more popular with a few of the knuckle-draggers.

[soulboy]

Urgh.

I had indeed forgotten that in my desire to hear the equivalent of his "trotters up" rant.

Utterly reprehensible.

[Oboogie]

David Miliband isn’t going to get selected, or win. It needs a blue collar version of Martin Bell.

Danny Dyer? The hustings would be dynamite.

Somebody of that ilk, working class, non-politician, standing as an independent.

[Oboogie]

My friend who is a parliamentary expert thinks Farage may have misread or misunderstood the code. The investigation will be suspended but will resume should he be re-elected.

You'd think he'd be able to afford someone clever to check it for him...but that underestimates his arrogance I suppose.

[Samanfur]

In Farage's narrative, "clever" is an insult.

[davidjay]

David Miliband isn’t going to get selected, or win. It needs a blue collar version of Martin Bell.

Danny Dyer? The hustings would be dynamite.

Somebody of that ilk, working class, non-politician, standing as an independent.

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon?

[Tubby Isaacs]

My friend who is a parliamentary expert thinks Farage may have misread or misunderstood the code. The investigation will be suspended but will resume should he be re-elected.

Now then!