London —
A political gamble looks like it has spectacularly backfired.
When British right-wing populist leader Nigel Farage announced he was resigning as a lawmaker and triggering a special election in the face of a swirl of allegations over personal financing, he sought the high ground, declaring that the “judges of my actions” should be his constituents.
Instead, rival parties dismissed his actions as a stunt and said they would sit out the election, leaving his principal opponent as a garbage-can wearing comedian whose policies include forcing rule-breaking cyclists to ride unicycles.
Farage, the leader of the Reform UK party – which is topping most UK opinion polls – is facing allegations he failed to declare millions of pounds’ worth of gifts from wealthy donors and is being investigated by parliament’s standards watchdog. He has denied any wrongdoing.
