https://news.sky.com/video/share-13561329
When else has an MP stood down to contest a by-election in their own seat?
Nigel Farage isn't the first MP to resign and trigger a by-election in their constitency that they intend to fight.
Tory MP David Davis did the same in 2008, forcing a by-election in his Haltemprice and Howden constituency.
Davis forced the campaign to cause a debate on what he saw as the erosion as civil liberties, following a government proporsal to extend the pre-charge detention limit for terror suspects from 28 to 42 days.
Political journalist Michael Crick told Sky News that during that campaign: "The main political parties just said this is a stunt, we're not taking part in this... and so you had this ridiculous result where David Davis won it overwhelmingly and all the other parties, and there were a huge number of them were very, very minor. And it meant nothing."
Crick said it is "quite possible" that the other main parties "decide to do the same thing in Clacton".
While fellow Conservative Zac Goldsmith resigned his Richmond Park seat in 2016, in order to contest it as an independent when the government confirmed it would support a third runway at Heathrow Airport.
Goldsmith lost that by-election to the Liberal Democrats.
While Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless both forced by-elections in 2014 when they defected from the Conservatives to UKIP. Both were re-elected under their new party.
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interesting times ahead
When else has an MP stood down to contest a by-election in their own seat?
Nigel Farage isn't the first MP to resign and trigger a by-election in their constitency that they intend to fight.
Tory MP David Davis did the same in 2008, forcing a by-election in his Haltemprice and Howden constituency.
Davis forced the campaign to cause a debate on what he saw as the erosion as civil liberties, following a government proporsal to extend the pre-charge detention limit for terror suspects from 28 to 42 days.
Political journalist Michael Crick told Sky News that during that campaign: "The main political parties just said this is a stunt, we're not taking part in this... and so you had this ridiculous result where David Davis won it overwhelmingly and all the other parties, and there were a huge number of them were very, very minor. And it meant nothing."
Crick said it is "quite possible" that the other main parties "decide to do the same thing in Clacton".
While fellow Conservative Zac Goldsmith resigned his Richmond Park seat in 2016, in order to contest it as an independent when the government confirmed it would support a third runway at Heathrow Airport.
Goldsmith lost that by-election to the Liberal Democrats.
While Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless both forced by-elections in 2014 when they defected from the Conservatives to UKIP. Both were re-elected under their new party.
=====
interesting times ahead
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