Nigel Farage has now been elected as a Reform UK MP for Clacton. Did he explain why he chose to campaign in Clacton specifically, rather than any other constituency?
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5I've been to Clacton and even before the election, there was a great deal of sympathy for the kind of anti-immigration policies being pushed by Reform.– ValorumCommented Jul 6 at 7:45
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@Valorum - I believe the constituency includes Jaywick, which has achieved a certain notoriety as a kind of 'chav hell'.– Michael HarveyCommented Jul 6 at 18:04
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2@FumbleFingers "Because he lives there" would be a pretty convincing answer if you're willing to post it as one.– F1KrazyCommented Jul 6 at 19:16
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1@F1Krazy: I was kinda hoping someone could research it better than me. Googling "when did nigel farage move to clacton" gets nothing relevant for me! But I'm fairly sure whenever he did move there, he wasn't expecting to stand for Clacton in this election.– FumbleFingersCommented Jul 6 at 19:20
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2@FumbleFingers "Googling "when did nigel farage move to clacton" gets nothing relevant for me" - That might be because, from what I can find, he doesn't actually live in Clacton after all - he lives in the village of Downe in Greater London, a 90-minute drive away.– F1KrazyCommented Jul 6 at 19:26
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1 Answer
Clacton was seen as the seat most likely to elect a Reform MP, so it makes sense that Farage as party leader chose to stand there. (Farage became leader at the same time he announced he would stand.) A Survation poll from January showed that about 18% of voters in Clacton supported the Reform candidate there, rising to 37% (and winning by 10 points) if Farage would be the candidate instead. That's compared to national polls at the time which had Reform at between 4% and 13% support.
Survation (or rather, their client Arron Banks) most likely chose Clacton as the place to conduct the survey because it's where the UK Independence Party's first MP, Douglas Carswell, was elected in 2014. At that time, Farage was leader of UKIP, so it's likely there would be a lot of overlap between those who supported UKIP under his leadership, and those who would support him in 2024.
That he stood for a different party probably would not hurt his chances; in the media, Farage was almost synonymous with UKIP anyway, and UKIP's platform then was quite similar to Reform's platform now (with the obvious exception that Reform are not now campaigning for Brexit, which has already happened).
