Polling day for the Clacton by-election has arrived – and for many locals the outcome cannot come soon enough. Asked about the race between sitting MP Nigel Farage and his closest competitor, Count Binface, many told Metro they were ‘fed up’ with it all.
Why the by-election was called
The election, which includes 34 candidates, was called when Reform leader Farage came under fire for an alleged £5 million ‘unconditional gift’ from cryptocurrency mogul Christopher Harbourne. After resigning in order to trigger the vote, Farage said it would be a ‘people versus the establishment’ fight and let voters in Clacton ‘be the judge of my actions’.
Retired NHS worker Julia Gibson-Cranch, 60, has done just that – and come out in favour of Binface. She said: ‘The whole reason we pay politicians a reasonable salary is so that they don’t take money from anywhere else, so that they don’t feel the need to take bribes or backhanders from dodgy billionaires.
‘It seems he [Farage] has no respect for that. Julia continued: ‘Nigel Farage has represented us in parliament something like 33% of the time. He is completely unable to be an MP. He’s got something like 13 other jobs!
‘I’ve been a manager in the NHS and other charities all my career. If someone turned up 33% of the time then left, I would not be impressed!’
Support for Farage remains
However, June and Alan Seward, 79 and 83, and their son Nick, 57, from Holland-on-Sea, insisted that there’s still a lot of love for Farage in the area. Alan said: ‘I think his support has been diluted by all these joke candidates like Binface. They’re wasting our time and making a mockery of the election.
‘We just want the election to be over to be honest.’
In Jaywick, officially rated as the most deprived neighbourhood in England, Darren, 51, said: ‘I don’t like any of them really.
‘Nobody would care about us down here if it wasn’t for Nigel being famous, but he’s hardly ever here anyway. So now all these joke candidates are coming down. It’s ridiculous.’
