Nigel Farage has announced he will run as Reform UK’s candidate in Clacton, after previously saying he would not stand in July’s general election.
The former UKIP and Brexit Party leader said he had changed his mind after spending time on the campaign trail, adding he did not want to let his supporters down.
The Essex seat, which was the first to elect a UKIP MP in 2014, has a Conservative majority of 25,702.
Mr Farage also revealed he was taking over from Richard Tice as Reform’s leader for the next five years.
Clacton was predicted to be held the Tories, but only by 7%, with Labour in second (according to FT’s poll tracker). Farage standing throws that out completely, it’s safe to say.
Question is, will Labour voters lend the Tories votes to keep Farage out?
Now there’s a tricky one because Labour will also think that this splits the right wing vote, letting them sneak in.
True! We need some constituency-specific polling to know what’s going on, otherwise we’re just speculating! Where’s Ashcroft when you need him?
Indeed. I imagine there will be a scramble to dig into this one.
Up to no good?
Yeah, finding another Labour MP to smear, probably. But his polling is good!
As Douglas Carswell held the seat from it’s creation in 2010 through his being Tory, UKIP (with it being a UKIP win in.the by-election he triggered by detecting and in the 2015 general election) and independent until the Tories won in 2017, it is probably the safest possible seat for Reform in the country and Farage could definitely swing it. It’s demographics trend towards older, white and deprived which is the target for Reform.