Clacton by-election result confirmed the manipulation of the issues by the mainstream media

By Anthony Webber

Independent Political Commentator

 

A few days ago I wrote about the frivolity of the Clacton by-election:

The Clacton by election should be about the cost of living crisis but instead has been about frivolity

 

Establishment failed in their anti-Farage efforts

Despite the excessively unfair promotion of Count Binface, the efforts to present him as the one to defeat Nigel Farage were a failure.

Even though the mainstream parties subtly suggested their supporters voted for him, most did not.

He ( the supposed all party anti Farage candidate) only achieved 26.9% of the vote.

This compares with the 52.7% combined vote of the Tories, Labour, Libdems and Greens at the 2024 election.

Even so, the fact that so many people were taken in by the Count Binface promotion is very concerning.

It shows how much control the mainstream media has over manipulating how people vote.

This extended to pushing out into oblivion the bulk of the other candidates, several of who had interesting policies to offer.

 

Immigration was the overriding factor in this by-election

Nigel Farage was able to obtain a large amount of national publicity on the immigration issue during the election campaign.

The immigration issue has reached crisis point and voters felt they only had Nigel Farage to turn to on this.

This certainly helped him increase his vote share from 46.2% at the 2024 election to 63.3% at this by-election.

 

Cost of living-the major issue which was not allowed to be an election issue

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has made the cost of living a major focus.

This by-election was an opportunity to debate which policies could reduce the costs of living.

Clearly the policies on Russia and on the Middle East have a major effect on increasing such costs.

Even immigration has an effect on the costs of living.

This opportunity to argue for a change in such policies was lost.

The establishment did not want such a debate and the mainstream media made sure there was not one.

Nigel Farage did not want such a debate either.

He had his own campaign and will have been satisfied with the outcome of it.

Some of the candidates realised what was going on, but too late in their campaigns to do anything about it.

Nigel Farage has achieved his endorsement but many feel that it was a distracting waste of time and money.

There could still be another by-election in Clacton in the near future if the Parliamentary investigation into his financial donation goes against him.

 

There will be a lot of learning points for election candidates in the future.

Certainly, there is a need for urgent change to laws, so that the media is totally fair to all candidates is elections.

Ironically, the results are quite related to the amount of media coverage the candidates were given.

The change to a fairer election system is well overdue too, so that voters do not feel that voting for their preferred candidate is wasted.

 

This has all been confirmed by the results:

2026 Clacton by-election[77][107]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform	Nigel Farage	22,239	63.34	+17.1
	Binface	Count Binface	9,455	26.93	N/A
	Rejoin EU	John Stevens	492	1.40	N/A
	Independent	Tony Francis	432	1.23	N/A
	Independent	Pamela Walford	371	1.06	N/A
	Reclaim	Laurence Fox	347	0.99	N/A
	SDP	William Clouston	256	0.73	N/A
	Independent	Nick Pelas	202	0.58	N/A
	Consensus	James Ransley	192	0.55	N/A
	Independent	Stephen Ingram	159	0.45	N/A
	British Democratic	Kai Stephens	132	0.38	N/A
	Independent	Attieh Fard	126	0.36	N/A
	Independent	Derrick Morris	100	0.28	N/A
	Independent	Michael O’Keeffe	65	0.19	N/A
	Freedom Alliance	Martin Davies	60	0.17	N/A
	Independent	Robin Green	59	0.17	N/A
	Independent	Rees Cowne	50	0.14	N/A
	Forward	Adham Alkhatip	49	0.14	N/A
	Independent	Amy Morris	46	0.13	N/A
	Independent	Andy Erlam	44	0.13	N/A
	Independent	Joseph 77	42	0.12	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	Nick The Incredible Flying Brick	28	0.08	N/A
	UK Voice	Ketankumar Pipaliya	21	0.06	N/A
	Independent	Martyn Obrien	19	0.05	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	Howling Laud Hope	18	0.05	N/A
	Independent	Tony Cane	17	0.05	N/A
	No description	Daniel Pocock	16	0.05	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	Baron Von Thunderclap	15	0.04	N/A
	Independent	Abi Hookway	14	0.04	N/A
	Independent	Marc Wilkinson	11	0.03	N/A
	Everyone is God	Marcus White	10	0.03	N/A
	Independent	Gerry Smith	9	0.03	N/A
	Independent	Woke Trump Carrzee	8	0.02	N/A
	Independent	Glenn Cummings	7	0.02	N/A
Majority			12,784	36.4
Turnout			35,111	44.37	−13.6
	Reform hold		Swing

Previous result

Main article: Clacton in the 2024 United Kingdom general election

This section is transcluded from Clacton (constituency). (edit | history)

General election 2024: Clacton[108][109]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform	Nigel Farage	21,225	46.2	N/A
	Conservative	Giles Watling	12,820	27.9	−44.0
	Labour	Jovan Owusu-Nepaul	7,448	16.2	+0.6
	Liberal Democrats	Matthew Bensilum	2,016	4.4	−1.8
	Green	Natasha Osben	1,935	4.2	+1.3

 

 

Anthony Webber

Independent Political Commentator

anthonywebber@cwgsy.net