So, the day has come of the Clacton by-election results, where unsurprisingly Farage won back his seat and ultimately his name is ‘cleared’. But why is this controversial?
At the beginning of July, Reform leader Nigel Farage announced his resignation as MP for his Essex constituency amid nationwide scrutiny about a 5 million pound donation, claiming that a by-election was required to democratically determine whether the people of Clacton still saw him as their legitimate representative despite the scandal. If not, he claimed ‘the establishment’ had beaten him and he would walk away from Clacton. A much more admirable decision might have been to step down as Reform party leader, but with the political momentum Reform UK gained when Farage became leader, it would be utter madness to give up such an amount of power and decrease the party’s popularity, even amid the scrutiny.
Various party leaders, including Andy Burnham, Kemi Badenoch and Ed Davey soon expressed their distain for the by-election, stating it was a ‘stunt’. Ultimately, there was a cross party consensus that most parties were refusing to stand a candidate against Farage in Clacton. This decision seemed rather easy considering the polling data, which reinforced a positive expected result for Farage. Either way, no other serious political parties stood a candidate for election, perhaps because they knew it would be a waste of time and money, but also to not gratify Farage’s choice – in fact, his most serious competitor was ‘Count Binface’ – a well known comedic candidate who stands regularly in elections.
Clacton is historically known for its support for Farage, electing UKIP candidates twice, amongst significant support for the Conservatives over the years. To little surprise, Clacton has re-elected Farage with a large majority of over 12,000, a total of 22,239 votes. Funnily enough, Count Binface also won his personal best with 9,455 votes.
One thing that Farage may have failed to realise, though, is that now he has been re-elected, the parliamentary standards authority will continue their investigation surrounding the donation. The by-election served as merely a distraction from the scandal of the week and the primary shock factor simply will not be reached again. Therefore, if the investigation reveals results that actually damage Farage’s credibility, we will see and time will tell.
No matter what politics we as a population believe, let’s hope that Farage begins to abide by his other duties as a representative, not just the costly option for renewed scrutiny whenever he faces backlash.