Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Boiler wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 2:38 pmQuestion, 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?

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.

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.

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

Does he even remember where Clacton is?

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

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

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

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.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 2:44 pm 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.

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

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 2:43 pm 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.

They'd be very sweary....

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.

Urgh.

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

Utterly reprehensible.

soulboy wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 2:51 pm

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 2:43 pm 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.

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 2:45 pm 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.

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

Oboogie wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 3:11 pm

soulboy wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 2:51 pm

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 2:43 pm 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?

Crabcakes wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2026 2:45 pm 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!