Did Nigel Farage ever intend to attend his by-election count?

When Nigel Farage refused to turn up to his own by-election count in Clacton earlier this month he claimed police had urged him to stay away, citing an “organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result” (Essex Police say no such advice was given).

Instead, the party organised an impromptu ‘Farage Fest’ at an airfield in Great Oakley with a live band, bars, fire pits, marquees and a Ferris wheel on which GB News political editor and Farage fanboy Christopher Hope managed to get trapped shortly after telling viewers how the event was “a political Glastonbury in the middle of Essex”.

But how impromptu was Farage’s decision to forgo standing in Clacton Leisure Centre alongside a man with a bin on his head and 32 other assorted oddballs? A letter shared on social media by one Reform campaigner suggests he had no intention of being there all along.

Suggested Reading

The Democrats’ secret plan to elect JD Vance

Matthew d’Ancona

The letter stated that the leader would be “watching the results come in at Great Oakley Airfield, with doors open at 11pm”, and that Farage would “speak from the main stage once the result is declared”. The letter had been posted before polling day, suggesting that Farage’s no-show was nothing to do with an iffy police warning. Who’d have thought it?

Also telling porkies is Nadhim Zahawi, the short-lived former chancellor who has now hitched his wagon to Reform. Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain in the wake of the Clacton result, he was asked by presenter Kate Garraway about the fact that Binface had managed to win 9,455 votes.

“Yeah and he got, by the way, he got I think £180,000 from Dale Vince, who is a big Labour supporter,” hit back Zahawi. “He got activists from the Conservative Party and from Labour going out to try and knock on doors for him.”

Strong stuff – but, alas for the hapless Zahawi, both big fat lies. Binface took no money from Vince and nor did he ask activists from any party to knock on doors for him.

Suggested Reading

Reform’s farmers are feeling the heat

Rats in a Sack

Good Morning Britain has corrected the record, host Ranvir Singh telling viewers this week: “While Mr Vince did offer financial support to Count Binface it was never actually accepted. Count Binface also says he has never asked activists from other parties to knock on doors for him, so we’re just clarifying that this morning.” Zahawi, on the other hand, has said nothing.

Finally, could we be back on the by-election trail soon? A rumour doing the rounds at Westminster is that Richard Tice – himself facing questions over his finances and links to ‘Posh’ George Cottrell and his mysteriously minted mother – has watched Farage’s near-humiliation in Clacton and decided he might fancy a bit of that himself.

Rumour has it that should Parliament’s standards commissioner start asking awkward questions, Tice too might resign his Boston and Skegness seat and spark a by-election in a repeat of Farage’s “people versus the establishment” stunt. Which would be much more of a risk, given that his majority there – 2,010 – is much smaller, and Tice has less of a personal following than his boss.