Farage looked rattled. But has he pulled off another political masterstroke?

“I have not broken the law in any way at all,” he growled. “I have not misused public money, and you know, for the first two years of being an MP, my personal MP expenses are zero.

“Not of course that you'll read about that in mainstream media.”

Oh, come on Nigel. You’re on TV more often than Ant and Dec, and you earn a hundred grand a week fronting a TV news show. If you’re not the mainstream media, who is?

But probably for the first time in his career, the Reform leader seemed genuinely rattled by recent coverage of his financial affairs, saying it had now spilled out into harassment of his daughter.

Last time I interviewed the Reform leader, I commented that he was an interviewer’s dream, knowing exactly how to handle almost any question, and come out with a newsworthy reply.

But the Nigel Farage we saw this afternoon was not the jovial, self-assured communicator we were used to. The tetchy monologue saw him occasionally stumble over his words, spitting out phrases like ‘establishment stitch-up’, ‘pile-on’, and of course, ‘mainstream media’, making him sound more like some embittered Facebook conspiracy theorist than a prime-minister-in-waiting.

There is no doubt that Mr Farage has faced abuse which no political leader should have to endure. The milk-shake incident was well-publicised, and in his speech he described his car being surrounded and vandalised by a mob of 50 hooligans. But were the perpetrators of these incidents really motivated by a Sunday Times investigation, or were they more likely pumped up by the bile that comes from keyboard warriors on his beloved social media? I would put my money on the latter.

While Mr Farage did seem genuinely upset, he may yet proved to have pulled off another media masterstroke.

Having fuelled speculation throughout the morning that he might be about to quit politics, with the cryptic announcement about ‘a statement about his future in public life’, he dramatically announced his resignation as an MP - and then said he would be standing again in a contest he is almost certain to win.

He has once more seized the narrative from Andy Burnham, with the latter’s ‘coronation’ as our next prime minister liable to be overshadowed by events in Clacton. Already, a spokesman for Mr Burnham - yes the backbench MP for Makerfield is already talking through an official spokesman - described the by-election a ‘gimmick’. Quite right Andy, there’s nothing worse than politicians triggering by-elections for their own political convenience.

How will his opponents, the so-called ‘establishment parties’ respond? Well, when David Davies tried the same trick in protest at ‘the erosion of civil liberties’ in 2008, Labour responded by not sitting the by-election, leaving the ex-shadow home secretary in an embarrassing non-contest with only the Greens and the English Democrats as rivals. Could such a trick work in Clacton? A two-horse race between him, and say the Greens, would certainly liven things up, although Clacton is hardly the type of seat where a ‘progressive alliance’ would be likely to triumph. A more realistic tactic may be for Labour to tacitly give the Conservatives a free pass, but that would add fuel to his claim of an ‘establishment stitch up’.

His opponents can’t win, he can’t lose.

So, barring an unprecedented upset, Nigel Farage will spend the next few weeks dominating the mainstream media, ahead of an almost certain victory at the ensuing by-election.

The master of the media has managed to turn an investigation into his finances into a breath-taking publicity stunt. All with the help of the newspapers and broadcasters he is supposed to despise.

P T Barnum eat your heart out.