> All of the major parties except for Reform withdrew their candidates in protest of Farage.

This doesn't make sense. If they wanted to protest Farage, wouldn't they be better off running a serious candidate against him?

Farage engineered this situation to try to take control of the narrative about the investigation into £5m of undeclared income/gifts.

They neutered that move by not entering the contest in the first place. And Binface (with support of 32 other candidates) turned it into a humiliating exercise.

A "serious" by-election is what Farage wanted. You don't protest by playing along. You protest by doing your best to express how much of a farce it is.

Farage can't say "The people want me more than your other serious candidates even after this controversy" if there are no serious candidates running.

They plan to eject Farage from Parliament after their investigation concludes. Farage was trying to delay the investigation, or perhaps prove a point that his voters don't care.