For a moment on Tuesday it looked as if Nigel Farage would throw up his hands and quit British politics altogether. Instead, under pressure from a growing number of corruption probes, he used a surprise “important announcement” to launch a slow-motion temper tantrum.

Declaring his immediate resignation from the House of Commons on YouTube, the leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party said he would trigger a special election where he would recontest his parliamentary constituency in Clacton, on the east coast of England, a “people versus the establishment” vote on his conduct.

It’s a desperate move by a desperate man who’s fully aware that his rackety history is catching up with him. (In his announcement, Farage continued to say he’d done nothing wrong.) Taking a page from the Donald Trump populist playbook, having — perhaps not coincidently — spent the weekend celebrating America’s 250th anniversary in the president’s orbit, Farage sought to blame the media and his political enemies for his travails.

But the exam question is bogus. It’s not up to Clacton to decide whether he acted inappropriately by failing to declare a £5 million ($6.7 million) personal donation from a benefactor shortly before becoming a member of Parliament. Nor to offer judgment on the other gifts and services he received from a convicted felon known as “Posh George.”

Both cases are being investigated by the proper authority, Parliament’s independent standards commissioner, who already has the power to recommend a........

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