The resort town of Clacton is, in most senses, very different to Westminster, nearly sixty miles to its south-west. Poorer, whiter, determined to be a thorn in the side of the establishment rather than the embodiment of it. In one crucial sense, though, the two are increasingly similar – both have seen remarkably little of Nigel Farage.

The Reform UK leader’s lack of interest in the Essex seaside town he claims to represent is demonstrated by the absence of constituency surgeries he claims not to hold due to security concerns. His failure to put in the hours in Parliament may come as more of a surprise after all; he tried eight times to become an MP.

But according to Commons Clipper, which records MPs’ speeches for social media, Farage is one of the chamber’s least frequent speakers. While the average MP has risen to speak 83 times so far in 2026, he’s managed all of nine. MPs are paid very nearly £100,000 a year to do their jobs, but let’s be fair, that must seem like pocket change to Farage.

This is not the only evidence that something has gone awry with Farage’s diary.

Having held press conferences as often as he has Mayfair dinners, he began to cancel them, in favour of posting on social media. He didn’t even show up to his own count at the Clacton by-election, perhaps sensibly avoiding having to stand next to the bin.

One burst of media appearances he did make was one morning in late June, when he gave back-to-back interviews to anyone who wanted them. This had the making of a quite clever strategy: you could easily imagine a version of events in which a press pack always chasing the new and shiny thing collectively agreed that Farage’s mysterious £5m gift from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne was now yesterday’s news, and they wanted a new story from Farage.

This, though, only works if you don’t generate fresh stories while doing it. Farage mucked it up by turning up visibly furious at journalists for having the temerity to actually ask him questions. After that performance, you can’t really blame him for returning to the submarine strategy.

So no, Farage has not been much seen in Clacton or Parliament. But neither has he been seen anywhere else. In a stark contrast with last summer, when Reform’s anti-immigration rhetoric dominated the airwaves, the political agenda has largely been set by announcements and TikTok videos made by the actual Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

What’s behind Farage’s disappearing act? The obvious explanation is that it’s about the money. The questions have not gone away the parliamentary inquiry into whether he broke any rules by accepting the Harborne millions reopened the very morning of his by-election victory. Farage reckons Clacton voters don’t care where his money comes from. The regulators, surely do. And the outcome could mean he has to defend the seat all over again. He’ll most probably win, but this once-wily political campaigner, so accustomed to shaping events, is now being dragged along by them.

Then again, perhaps Farage is speaking less because he can’t work out what to say. As an insurgent, all he had to do was to be a bit less liberal and a bit more Brexit than the Tories. For the first time, though, he’s facing a significant challenge from his right. Be too hardline, and he risks sending part of his coalition back to the Tories. Not hardline enough, and he risks sending others towards his nemesis Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain. Easier perhaps, to stay silent.

Or perhaps he thinks having won Clacton overwhelmingly (twice), he has no reason to show up to the place he has to thank for the job.

There is one more possible explanation for the growing invisibility of Farage. Perhaps he’s just had enough. For most of his political career, being in politics must have seemed fun. He got to make life difficult for people he despised, all the while seeming to be having a jolly good time with a pint and a fag. Now, though, people keep asking questions he doesn’t want to answer, and he’s facing exactly the strategic dilemma he’s used to forcing on other parties. Don’t you think he’s looking tired?

So perhaps that’s led him to think hard about exactly how far he wants to take this. If he’s finding even this level of scrutiny a very obvious inconvenience, just imagine how much he’d loathe being Prime Minister.