Clacton’s MP Nigel Farage has said he will give up his majority shareholder position at Refrom UK. 

In a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Farage announced the change to the party. 

He said: “I’ve made a decision. I no longer need to control this party. I’m going to let go.” 

In contrast to most political parties, Reform UK was set up as a private limited company. 

Mr Farage owns 60 per cent of the shares of the company behind Reform UK, for which he has been criticised. 

He said: “But I did it for a very simple reason. Number one, so that I could make very fast decisions and, you know, after 30 years in politics, hopefully, I do roughly know what I’m doing. 

“But secondly, and most importantly, the real reason was to prevent a small, nascent political party being taken over by malign actors, and that was my really big fear, but we’ve moved on since then.” 

Mr Farage announced that the party would see a change of the party and that “the members of Reform (...) will own this party”. 

“I’m relinquishing control of the company and indeed of the overall control of the party. It’s now going to be the members.” 

He justified the decision as “the right thing” to do ahead of the party conference in Birmingham on September 20. 

According to the Clacton MP, the party counts more than 80,000 members to this day. 

The plan is to set up a board to be in control of the party, which will be set up soon.