EditThe Clacton by-election: what comes next for Nigel Farage?
The Reform UK’s leader win will not change the reality that he will face the prospect of a gruelling enquiry into how he treated the £5 million donation
When Nigel Farage announced in July that he intended to resign his seat in the Commons as the MP for Clacton which he had taken just two years earlier and contest the resulting by-election many commentators saw the decision as a miscalculation by Farage, speculating that the decision would backfire. But Farage knew Clacton better than the commentators. Clacton is one of the constituencies that is regarded as very much pro- Reform UK party in England.
Farage beats satirical rival Count Binface in Clacton’s circus election
Moreover – and a point curiously overlooked in much of the commentary on Farage’s decision – this would not be the first time the MP for Clacton had resigned, triggered a by-election and been re-elected. Clacton constituency was formed in 2010 following electoral boundary changes. In the 2010 general election Douglas Carswell, a Conservative MP who had represented the neighbouring constituency of Harwich, switched to Clacton to contest the election.
In the general election Carswell was elected as a Conservative MP with a very significant – 53% share of the votes cast. A vigorous opponent of UK membership of the EU, in 2014 Douglas Carswell switched to the UK Independence Party, then led by Nigel Farage. On joining UKIP Carswell resigned his seat in the Commons and offered himself for re-election as a UKIP candidate. In the resulting by-election he took 59.7% of the votes cast and became UKIP’s first MP. In the by-election the Conservative vote dropped to less than half of that received in the 2010 general election. The Tory Giles Watling took 24.6% of the vote cast. The Labour candidate came third on 11.2% with the Lib Dems an Greens trailing behind on low single figures. After the Brexit referendum Carswell ‘parted company’ with UKIP on the basis that it had achieved its goal. He did not contest the 2017 general election. The Clacton seat in the Commons reverted to the Conservatives’ until the 2024 General election when it was taken by Nigel Farage. In that election Farage won 21,225 votes – 46.25% of the votes cast.
The main political parties decided not to take part in the 13 August by-election brought about by Farage’s resignation. They sought to portray their decision as base on principle – as avoiding a ‘circus’ in which Farage would be the the ‘Ringmaster’ , as denying Farage of the opportunity to serving his personal interests rather than the interests of the people of Clacton or as, as the leader of the Greens put it as a means of frustrating “a desperate stunt from a desperate politician whose lifetime of grifting is finally catching up with him”. There can be little doubt that had any of the main parties believed that they could have defeated Nigel Farage they would have entered the election. Instead they recognised the reality that on this occasion “discretion is the better part of Valor” and sitting out the by-election was a more astute option than giving Farage the opportunity of registering a big win against the major parties in the ballot boxes at Clacton,
In addition to dismissing the by-election as a stunt and a sham the only other tactic available to the major parties was to starve it of publicity in the hope that in effectively ‘blanking’ the event would deny Farage the opportunity to dominate the airwaves during the traditional media ‘silly season’ and help to depress turnout ‘devaluing any a Farage ‘win’.
The parties had some success in terms of limiting Farage’s capacity to dominate the airwaves. Given the significance of the by-election it attracted very little ‘cover’ – particularly on broadcast media. Much of the cover that the bi-election did attract focused on the ‘satirical’ candidates and in particular ‘Count Binface’ , a self-styled satirical space alien, from planet Sigma IX.
Mixed result and more to come?
On Thursday just under 44.4% of the voters in Clacton turned out to cast their vote. This turnout was slightly higher than the 42% average turnout in the 20 by-elections contested in England in the previous five years, but significantly below the 58.7% turnout in the Makerfield by-election in June that Andy Burnham won.
Nigel Farage received 22,239 votes – 63.3% of the votes cast: Count Binface his closest opponent received 9,455 votes (26.93%). Farage who did not attend the vote count described the result as a “convincing, overwhelming win,” pointing out that the vote count was higher than the 21,225 votes he received in the 2024 general election.
Speaking before the by-election count, Farage indicated that he would not attend because police had advised him of an “organised campaign to disrupt and degrade” the result. Local police contested this explanation, telling the media that no candidate had been advised not to attend the count.
While receiving 63.3% of the votes in the by-election was a significant result the tone of Farage’s response to the by-election results suggests a degree of disappointment that the 73% support that opinion polling had predicted ahead of voting day had not been achieved. The results announced in the early hours of this morning at the Clacton leisure centre were also not what the main political parties had hoped for!
While the by-election will see Nigel Farage back in the Commons in September when the House returns from the summer recess it will not change the reality that back in Westminster as an MP he will face the prospect of a gruelling enquiry into how he treated the £5 million received from Christopher Harborne and the very significant staffing, accommodation and other support received from his long-time associate George Cotterell in the months running up to the 2024 general election.
The people of Clacton had their say in Thursday’s by-election, but the British electorate has still to hear from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg – whose inquiry into the support received from Christopher Harborne, George Cotterell and possibly others will be reconvened when Nigel Farage is again sworn in as an MP.
The Clacton by-election is over but as always with Nigel Farage the question is – what comes next?
Caption: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks during a press conference in London, Britain, 10 August 2026. Farage claimed that if Reform came into power, they would deport every single foreign national offender from British prisons. EPA/ANDY RAIN
Updated: August 14, 2026 - 13:45
