Nigel Farage was up against Count Binface in the Clacton by-election
Nigel Farage refused to show up to the results of the Clacton by-election on Friday.
“I am damned if I am going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory, and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies,” he told supporters.
But damned he was.
When Farage resigned to trigger the by-election last month, he declared it would be a “people v the establishment” battle. He was supposed to savour victory next to sullen looking Labour, Tory and Green candidates.
Instead, the mainstream media led with the line that he had “seen off Count Binface”—a comedian dressed as an intergalactic dustbin.
Farage won 22,239 votes—63.34 percent of the vote—while Binface came second with 9,455 votes—26.93 percent.
His number of votes was only up slightly from 21, 225 in the general election, while turnout was down from 58 to 44 percent.
Farage triggered the by-election in a bid to paint himself as the victim amid a corruption scandal.
The Reform UK leader tried to hide gifts and benefits from an aristo financier with a conviction for fraud.
“Posh George” Cottrell, who was convicted of fraud in the US in 2016, is seeking a pardon from Donald Trump. He paid for Farage’s social media and security staff and he let him crash in a five-story Georgian town house near Buckingham Palace.
MPs have to declare all donations, gifts and hospitality worth over £300 they received in the year before they were elected.
Those revelations came just weeks after another corruption scandal. It was revealed that Farage had failed to declare a £5 million donation from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.
This “gift” came just before Farage announced his intention to stand for parliament in the general election in the summer of 2024.
Farage told some journalists it was a personal gift while he claimed to others it was for security—which he needs because the left is so beastly to him.
Reform UK is in trouble—but it doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. Reform UK candidates have faced a series of defeats in high profile by -elections—Gorton and Denton, Makerfield and the Greater Manchester mayoral election.
Many on the left now think that Burnham has seen off the threat of Reform UK after Labour decisively won the Greater Manchester mayoral election.
But the “Burnham bounce” is not a bulwark against the far right.
First, Burnham is not “winning back” Reform UK en masse—who were never mainly former Labour voters.
The main source of the “Burnham bounce” are people who switched to back the Greens and the Lib Dems.
When Starmer resigned, 14 percent of people who voted Labour in the general election said they would now back Zack Polanski’s Green Party. That figure is down to 9 percent since Burnham took over.
But to keep those voters Burnham has to deliver—or the bounce will be quickly followed by betrayal.
His measures to tackle the cost of living, such as making it easier to cancel subscriptions, don’t match the scale of the crisis. His measures to tackle climate catastrophe appear to be asking supermarkets not to sell disposable barbecues.
He doesn’t want to break from Labour’s self-imposed “fiscal rules” and subservience to big business and the bond market.
Second, Burnham has not broken with Keir Starmer’s war on migrants or strategy of capitulating to the right on immigration.
One of his first acts was to keep in post home secretary Shabana Mahmood, who adopted the language and policies of the far right on immigration.
The refugee crisis in Sabta, north Africa, became a rallying point for the far right this month. In response, Burnham pledged that his government would be “relentless” in stopping people arriving in Britain on small boats.
Such attempts to “out-Reform” Reform UK only legitimises racism and fuel the far right further.
Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain, which welcomes fascists, is putting pressure on Reform UK to radicalise rightwards. The combined vote of both far right parties in the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election was almost 160,000 cotes.
Farage is filthy rich and corrupt but tries to pose as an “anti-establishment outsider”—the only way to square the circle is to double down on racism.
Only last week “shadow home secretary” Zia Yusuf said the party would deport all foreign citizens in prisons to El Salvador and Kosovo. It was a piece of political theatre designed to associate migrants with “criminality”.
There is a danger that, in this atmosphere, it can spill over into racist violence on the streets.
The generational battle against the far right is a defining feature of politics.
Building Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) across Britain is the key task. SUTR has campaigned against Reform UK in all the recent by-elections—and deepening its roots in towns and cities and workplaces is vital.
In Clacton, SUTR activists were out every weekend campaigning against Farage and taking on anti-migrant lies.
If there was a shift in the level of working class struggle, it would provide much better terrain to push back against Farage and the far right. Building the widest possible solidarity for strikes—such as at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)—can help spread the fightbacks.
Our side fighting, not relying on Labour, is the only way to put Farage into the dustbin of history.
Farage under pressure from Restore Britain
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