For months before May’s local elections in England, Nigel Farage and Reform UK toured a roadshow around those parts of the country that were its biggest political targets.It was a high-octane, whizz-bang political show with pyrotechnics and snazzy production values. It seemed expensive. Reform’s adoring crowds loved it.Farage was, of course, the star of the show. Each event culminated in a speech from the Reform leader, in which he usually stuck to a version of the same script. Time and again, I heard him make the same pronouncement: “I can’t be bullied, I can’t be bought.”He is now embroiled in the fight of his political life, with his Downing Street dream in peril over allegations that he did not declare to parliament millions of pounds worth of donations from secretive businessmen linked to the cryptocurrency industry.He says the donations he received were “personal” gifts and he is the victim of an “establishment hit job”. He sounds increasingly like a man who feels bullied, pleading that he wasn’t bought.On Tuesday, Farage came out fighting, announcing he will stand down as the MP for Clacton, and will run in the subsequent byelection – a “people versus the establishment vote,” he says.It is a big gamble by the Reform leader, and a bold move that could strengthen his position if he wins, or herald disaster if he loses.One of several of Reform’s travelling political circus events that I attended took place at a horse showground a few miles outside Norwich in the spring. It finished up at about 9pm. The car parks were so full, it took at least 45 minutes to crawl out the gates.Nigel Farage resigns triggering by-election Listen | 15:41I had booked a room above a country pub, the Parson Woodforde, which was only about a 20-minute drive away during daylight. But in the dark of the Norfolk night, I had to take my time driving down a series of narrow country lanes with steep drop-offs and ditches.By the time I burst through the door of the pub, starving and late for dinner, the kitchen had already closed. The staff must have seen the look of hungry desperation on my face. The head chef, who was having a post-work pint at the bar, kindly offered to fire up all the hotplates again and cook me a juicy steak. I almost hugged the man.Reform UK leader Nigel Farage makes a statement to the media at the party headquarters in Millbank, central London. Mr Farage has resigned as MP for Clacton, saying he will fight the forthcoming by-election. Picture date: Tuesday July 7, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire A few more faces that I recognised from the Reform rally, and who must have just endured the same panicked drive I had, arrived at the pub a few minutes after me. Having indulged this reporter, the chef had no choice but to accommodate them too. We would all be here for a while. I settled down for a pint with the Reform supporters.One of them, Malcolm, who was originally from Cape Town but now living in Britain and married to an English woman, told me that he had been a Ukip supporter years ago and had followed Farage in politics ever since. Malcolm was the jolliest of men: he had a few kooky political ideas but he was as friendly as you could ever meet.[ Nigel Farage resigns from parliament but will stand in byelectionOpens in new window ]He nodded to another man, sitting on his own at a table across the pub. This other man exchanged a few pleasantries with Malcolm’s wife and another couple with them, but mostly he sat there quietly as the late-working chef cooked us up a storm in the kitchen.“Who’s he?” I asked Malcolm.“He is the brother of the crypto guy out in Thailand who gave £12 million to Reform.”The “crypto guy” was Christopher Harborne who in total, has donated about £25 million to Farage’s various political ventures over the years.A few months before the Norfolk event, he made the news for donating £9 million in a single chunk, the biggest ever personal donation in British political history. Weeks later, he donated another £3 million.Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images An undeclared £5 million donation by Harborne has set off the financial scandal that now threatens to engulf Farage’s political ambitions. The Reform leader insists it didn’t have to be declared and he hasn’t broken the rules, but it is now under investigation by the UK parliament’s standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg.Since that story broke at the very beginning of the summer, Farage, looking hounded and haunted, has avoided most of the media interviews that, before, he’d have revelled in.Last weekend, the Sunday Times broke a new story about undeclared donations to the Reform leader.It alleged that “Posh George” Cottrell (32), an aristocrat and convicted fraudster with links to the crypto industry, and who has been a friend of Farage’s for years, paid for his security and gave him the use of a five-bedroom house near Buckingham Palace.Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Farage appeared to suggest on Tuesday that those donations are also subject to a parliamentary investigation by Greenberg.The week before that story, the same paper reported that Farage and his partner had built up a £4 million property portfolio in recent years, some of it paid for in cash.Now Farage has laid down the gauntlet to his political foes. Even if he wins the upcoming Clacton byelection he has effectively called himself, he may have to run for the seat a third time if he is suspended for long enough, if the parliamentary investigation goes against him.Yet he insists that whatever happens, he is going nowhere.[ Nigel Farage faces new allegations about his finances. Here are the key detailsOpens in new window ]