Daniel Vollborth is a Policy Fellow at the Pinsker Centre and was Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association in 2025. He has recently graduated with a degree in Architecture from the University of Cambridge.
Nigel Farage continues to campaign in Clacton ahead of his tête-à-tête with Count Binface, having resigned with the intention of standing again in his own constituency. This comes only weeks after Josh Simons resigned his seat in Makerfield, not because he had become unable to serve as MP, but in order to allow Andy Burnham to stand in his stead.
By-elections are intense and unique political phenomena; national parties focus their whole campaigning capacity on a single point on the map, trends, leaflets, the performance of politicians and policies on the doorsteps, are all tested while the whole country looks on, taking notes.
They typically don’t take place unless need to. MPs are usually quite fond of their seats and don’t tend to give them up easily, so the majority of by-elections are unexpected, and unplanned. Yet Farage’s and Burnham’s by-elections are somewhat different, and point to a little explored concept in British Politics; by-elections can be political tools like any other.
In 2008 David Davis resigned his seat in Haltemprice and Howden, triggering a by-election in which he stood again as his party’s Candidate, à la Farage. Unlike Farage his resignation was not driven by the want to preempt an investigation, but as part of a political campaign against the erosion of civil liberties. While he received verbal support from David Cameron, Davis was acting alone, pursuing a campaign of his own, which bore his name: the David Davis For Freedom campaign.
Then Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman derided the campaign as a “frolic,” saying that “By-elections are for when a member of Parliament dies or when they are genuinely going on to another job”. While she may be conventionally correct Davis’s by-election took place, with Davis winning, just as Andy Burnham stood in Makerfield (in turn triggering the upcoming Greater Manchester Mayoral by-election) and Farage is standing in Clacton now.
This begs the question, if, following this precedent, parties can be trusted to use by-elections responsibly, and if some change in the constitutional workings of by-elections might be overdue. The political fortunes of a party can be significantly impacted by a successful or unsuccessful by-election as it gives parties a new front in which to compete to define the narrative – as Reform have tried to do in Clacton; pitting themselves against the ‘uniparty establishment’ and attempting to preempt the investigation by Parliament’s standards watchdog in some sort of electoral trial by combat.
In the end these attempts were rejected by the other parties who chose not to stand, though had they contested it then the headlines and political resources it might have taken up could very much be disrupting Andy Burnham’s already rushed ascension to Number 10 – a side effect Farage would no doubt welcome.
Ultimately there’s nothing constitutionally preventing a party with a willing MP from triggering a by-election as part of political game playing such as this, to divert attention and resources into a corner of the country of their choosing. Naturally this is a gambit for the MP in question, but one assumes if you pick the terms of the by-election – the where and when – then you should be getting together a fairly sound home turf advantage.
Labour could, if they so chose, pick out some seats just on the safe side of marginal with the Green Party and trigger by-elections every 6 months between now and the general election. With enough prior planning and clever seat selection, they could reach the General Election having set a winning precedent against the Greens which could influence the calculations of tactical voters, and would also have forced the Greens to expend money and man-hours ahead of the general election which, with a more limited fundraising capacity than Labour, they’d be unable to replenish as quickly or completely.
Farage’s by-election being uncontested, Count Binface acknowledged, illustrates the only real backstop against the kinds of games described above, that others may see through your scheme and outflank you with a potentially humiliating refusal to engage. Farage has certainly been stung with this and it’ll likely serve as a warning to others trying the same thing in future, though all the same once its been proven possible it’s only a matter of time before its tried and tested and becomes part of our political calculous.
By elections can be unpleasant affairs for constituents, badgered by door knockers, leafletters, and news crews, campaigners bussing in from around the country. They’re also expensive, each one costing the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds. Harman is also correct, they are supposed to be “for when a member of Parliament dies or when they are genuinely going on to another job”, but recent examples have demonstrated that as it stands there is nothing stopping them from mutating into something else.
While convention alone appears unable to prevent abuses, it seems very unlikely any constitutional tool could be divined able to discern an organically occurring resignation from an inorganic one. The court case following Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament established that the sovereign’s role in approving the prorogation elevated it above politics and placed it out of reach of plotting PMs. Requiring royal permission to call a by election may serve as a check, though is more likely to endanger royal neutrality than anything else.
Thus it appears that by-elections are poised to take on a bigger role in political strategy in years to come. Parties and MPs are well within their rights, as they stand, to force them to happen, though necessarily must run the risk of losing or, potentially worse, end up alone against a bin.
Daniel Vollborth is a Policy Fellow at the Pinsker Centre and was Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association in 2025. He has recently graduated with a degree in Architecture from the University of Cambridge.
Nigel Farage continues to campaign in Clacton ahead of his tête-à-tête with Count Binface, having resigned with the intention of standing again in his own constituency. This comes only weeks after Josh Simons resigned his seat in Makerfield, not because he had become unable to serve as MP, but in order to allow Andy Burnham to stand in his stead.
By-elections are intense and unique political phenomena; national parties focus their whole campaigning capacity on a single point on the map, trends, leaflets, the performance of politicians and policies on the doorsteps, are all tested while the whole country looks on, taking notes.
They typically don’t take place unless need to. MPs are usually quite fond of their seats and don’t tend to give them up easily, so the majority of by-elections are unexpected, and unplanned. Yet Farage’s and Burnham’s by-elections are somewhat different, and point to a little explored concept in British Politics; by-elections can be political tools like any other.
In 2008 David Davis resigned his seat in Haltemprice and Howden, triggering a by-election in which he stood again as his party’s Candidate, à la Farage. Unlike Farage his resignation was not driven by the want to preempt an investigation, but as part of a political campaign against the erosion of civil liberties. While he received verbal support from David Cameron, Davis was acting alone, pursuing a campaign of his own, which bore his name: the David Davis For Freedom campaign.
Then Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman derided the campaign as a “frolic,” saying that “By-elections are for when a member of Parliament dies or when they are genuinely going on to another job”. While she may be conventionally correct Davis’s by-election took place, with Davis winning, just as Andy Burnham stood in Makerfield (in turn triggering the upcoming Greater Manchester Mayoral by-election) and Farage is standing in Clacton now.
This begs the question, if, following this precedent, parties can be trusted to use by-elections responsibly, and if some change in the constitutional workings of by-elections might be overdue. The political fortunes of a party can be significantly impacted by a successful or unsuccessful by-election as it gives parties a new front in which to compete to define the narrative – as Reform have tried to do in Clacton; pitting themselves against the ‘uniparty establishment’ and attempting to preempt the investigation by Parliament’s standards watchdog in some sort of electoral trial by combat.
In the end these attempts were rejected by the other parties who chose not to stand, though had they contested it then the headlines and political resources it might have taken up could very much be disrupting Andy Burnham’s already rushed ascension to Number 10 – a side effect Farage would no doubt welcome.
Ultimately there’s nothing constitutionally preventing a party with a willing MP from triggering a by-election as part of political game playing such as this, to divert attention and resources into a corner of the country of their choosing. Naturally this is a gambit for the MP in question, but one assumes if you pick the terms of the by-election – the where and when – then you should be getting together a fairly sound home turf advantage.
Labour could, if they so chose, pick out some seats just on the safe side of marginal with the Green Party and trigger by-elections every 6 months between now and the general election. With enough prior planning and clever seat selection, they could reach the General Election having set a winning precedent against the Greens which could influence the calculations of tactical voters, and would also have forced the Greens to expend money and man-hours ahead of the general election which, with a more limited fundraising capacity than Labour, they’d be unable to replenish as quickly or completely.
Farage’s by-election being uncontested, Count Binface acknowledged, illustrates the only real backstop against the kinds of games described above, that others may see through your scheme and outflank you with a potentially humiliating refusal to engage. Farage has certainly been stung with this and it’ll likely serve as a warning to others trying the same thing in future, though all the same once its been proven possible it’s only a matter of time before its tried and tested and becomes part of our political calculous.
By elections can be unpleasant affairs for constituents, badgered by door knockers, leafletters, and news crews, campaigners bussing in from around the country. They’re also expensive, each one costing the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds. Harman is also correct, they are supposed to be “for when a member of Parliament dies or when they are genuinely going on to another job”, but recent examples have demonstrated that as it stands there is nothing stopping them from mutating into something else.
While convention alone appears unable to prevent abuses, it seems very unlikely any constitutional tool could be divined able to discern an organically occurring resignation from an inorganic one. The court case following Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament established that the sovereign’s role in approving the prorogation elevated it above politics and placed it out of reach of plotting PMs. Requiring royal permission to call a by election may serve as a check, though is more likely to endanger royal neutrality than anything else.
Thus it appears that by-elections are poised to take on a bigger role in political strategy in years to come. Parties and MPs are well within their rights, as they stand, to force them to happen, though necessarily must run the risk of losing or, potentially worse, end up alone against a bin.