EXCLUSIVE – Nigel Farage has taken a big risk in forcing a by-election in Clacton. He’s got a lot of supporters – but it’s harder to find fans who will defend him through thick, thin and months of turning their town into a circus
Nigel Farage is taking a big risk. He’s betting the people of Clacton love him so much they’ll vote for him again, despite mounting allegations of rulebreaking and multiple standards probes.
But after visiting the seaside town yesterday, I’m not as confident as he appears to be that he’ll be returned to Parliament on a wave of sympathy. I found at least as many people in Clacton who despised Farage as who would defend him through thick and thin in the admittedly limited sample available to me on a Tuesday afternoon. And for many of those on his side, their loyalty seemed subject to review.
Paul, 62, has lived in Clacton for three years and loves how chilled it is. Between sips of a beachside pint that looked deeply relaxing, he said he liked Farage so far, and hadn’t “seen anything that would put me off him.”
“They’ve been after him for a long time if you think about it,” he said. “I think a lot of people in Parliament are frightened of him. I’ve never voted, but this year in the general election – the little one [He meant this year’s local elections] – I voted for them. Because I thought he could do well for us.” Paul couldn’t say if Clacton has got better or worse since Farage parachuted himself into the seat in 2024 – but he acknowledged that he didn’t “see him round here. You do see him on telly. He always seems to be coming out of a pub.”
He said he wasn’t sure why people were always “hounding” Farage, but added that if he had done wrong, he shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.
“He should be accountable for it,” Paul said. “Everyone’s got to be accountable for what they do.”
Another Paul, also from Clacton, was volunteered by his group of five friends all in their 60s, to speak to me. He was the one, they said, that had the most fully-formed opinions on politics – but none of them was a fan of Farage. Their chosen spokesman was a man of few words, but firm in his convictions.
Asked if Clacton had been improved during Farage’s tenure, he said: “In a word…no.”
“There’s some ulterior motive,” to his decision to quit, Paul said, “that I haven’t got my head around yet.” He supposed it was most likely a ploy to distract attention from the Standards Commissioner Investigation, but needed to look into it further as the news was only a few hours old. For a lot of the people i spoke to it’s just too soon to tell how they’ll react to maybe one, maybe two byelections in their small divot in the English coastline.
For those, quite reasonably, not caught up with every spit and cough of the drama, I did my best to catch them up with a fair and balanced backstory – but the situation was fluid. While I was there, Labour, the Tories, the Lib Dems and Restore Britain had all declared they wouldn’t put up a candidate to stand in Farage’s “stunt” by-election. The Greens confirmed later that they wouldn’t either, leaving the only two declared candidates Farage himself and the perennial costumed joke candidate Count Binface.
Asked, if it were to be a straight fight between Farage and Count Binface, who he would vote for, Paul’s expression did not waver. He replied immediately, and with total sincerity: “Count Binface, every time”.
It wasn’t all bad news for Nigel. One lady in her 40s, who didn’t want to be identified because she works in a local school, presented evidence of a remarkable Venn diagram – her favourite politicians are Nigel Farage, Donald Trump and…Andy Burnham. She’s having a good year, she agreed, but she said she’d struggle to decide who to vote for next time around. She didn’t think the prospect of multiple by-elections would trouble the people of Clacton. “I think people in Essex are very strong-minded,” she said. “And if they decide something, they’ll do that. They’ll vote for him 100%, because there’s nobody else.”
And Alan and Sharon, both 62, from Clacton, said they thought Farage was playing the right cards. “I can see why he’s done it,” Sharon said. “If it gets everyone backing him again later, it’s a good idea really.” Alan, who wore a T-shirt with “Do Not Disturb” written on it that I had impolitely ignored to bother him for his thoughts, chimed in: “He’s fed up of people hounding him. Why should he be hounded? Would you like it?”
I mentioned the multiple allegations of rule-breaking, of failing to declare payments and gifts which might give the impression of impropriety. “Who cares?” Asked Alan. “Who cares? It’s personal.” Is it though, I asked? If someone offered him £5m out of the blue, would he not ask any questions?
“Why would I need to,” Alan said. “There’s no strings attached. I really don’t see what the conversation is about. Not when we’ve got a Labour government taking the piss out of the lot of us.” Asked if they thought Clacton had got better, Alan said: “Well…he’s done no harm to me.” Sharon added: “The whole thing stays the same, Clacton. But to be honest, you do see him out there trying to do his bit. He’s always out and about doing stuff.”
Even from a brief visit, it’s clear the people of Clacton are not caricature Farage fans, determined to defend Farage like MAGA rallies around Trump. He has a lot of support, but not a lot of unconditional support. He’s risked his seat in Parliament, his party’s credibility and his political career on the people of Clacton voting for him again at least once, maybe twice in the stretch of a few months, depending on how the standards probe pans out. The first of those votes is likely to be a joke. The eyes of the nation, probably the world, will turn to Clacton and see Farage fighting a campaign nobody asked for, against a man in a plastic dustbin costume. And maybe Elmo. By the time the second vote comes around, the seaside town will have been under seige from cameras, canvassers and scribblers like me for the best part of six months. And I wouldn’t be confident that the people of Clacton – at least the ones I met yesterday – will stand for that kind of nonsense.