Labour asks Electoral Commission to investigate claims Farage broke electoral law by not disclosing gifts – UK politics live

Kemi Badenoch has said the Conservatives won’t put up a candidate in the Clacton byelection. They came second in the seat in 2024, and held it with a majority of almost 25,000 in 2019.

double quotation mark We will be standing a candidate in the real byelection, which will follow the standards investigation into Nigel Farage’s fishy finances

We will not be standing a candidate in the fake byelection that Farage is causing to distract people from what is happening. We need to let that investigation run its course, and I think the reason why Nigel Farage has resigned is because he’s terrified that he’s going to be found to have done something wrong.

The best thing for him to have done would have been to call a press conference and explain what he did with the money, apologise if needs be, and that would have been the end of it. Instead, he has been running away from scrutiny. No one is bigger than parliament. We all have to register our interests.

This probably makes it even more likely that Labour will decide to do the same. (See 5.47pm .)

That is all from me for today. Nadeem Badshah is now taking over.