Why Farage Must Win Clacton-on-Sea to Kill the Far-Right

The only way to stopper Reform UK’s anti-establishment, far-right proclivity for perverting our fundamental political practices is to hope for Farage’s success in Clacton.

Some of Reform’s cousins have trod this path many times: Alternative für Deutschland, MAGA, or Rassemblement National, all use the same method. The implicit goal is to erode the average voter’s faith in the system, and with it increase the belief that establishment parties take average voters for granted. 

In Penny Bochum’s We Are The People, detailing the rise of the AfD, she describes how Euroscepticism facilitates the laundering of extremism. The lack of Eurosceptic voices in Germany at the time (or even within Merkel’s party) left only extreme elements able to give a voice to those who opposed the Eurozone bailouts, or the Euro, or even just those who believed that Merkel’s government wasn’t doing enough for average citizens. Eventually the party morphed into an ethnonationalist movement, pushing for “a resistance movement against the further erosion of sovereignty and the identity of Germany”, failing to allude to examples of either of those occurring. It didn’t matter if it was occurring. Only that people felt it was occurring. 

This is the pathway through which far-right parties grow: they enter politics through a niche that is unfulfilled by major parties and characterise that failure to act as an establishment conspiracy. Farage’s own accusations of a ‘uni-party’ between Labour and the Conservatives acts in such a way – finding the niche of poor immigration policy from both parties to suggest that the two parties act conspiratorially toward the downfall of “Western Christian values”. This same method is used to dissuade criticism of the party and its leadership – it’s a ‘coordinated pile-on’ that’s trying to drag down the true voice of the people!

Now comes the attempts to undermine the traditional paths to power. 

Generally, this is best done once a party has taken power democratically, but there are many examples of it being done without power. For example, Farage managed to push Brexit whilst only being an MEP by using UKIP as pressure in marginal Conservative seats and during the 2014 European Elections. 

By appealing to ‘Left Behind’ voters (those who had previously worked in industries that were abandoned by the UK Government, e.g., former miners and those who lost out from the 2008 bailout) and the Precariat (those existing without predictability of their security due to economic circumstances), UKIP pushed the Conservatives into adopting a referendum into their 2015 manifesto so as to shield right-wing votes from UKIP. 

With a contingent of voters vitriolic toward authority supporting a party that seeks to overturn order, it becomes only a matter of time before the opportunity to assault democracy presents itself. For Reform UK this convenience came with Starmer – whose unpopular regime only got in after the Conservatives lost the will to do so. Quickly, between Labour Austerity and Starmer’s own pitiful popularity, Reform had the opportunity to demand an election frequently. Reduced trust in the executive branch of government turns into reduced trust in all facets of government, including parts that are independent from the party in power, such as the electoral commission. 

This brings us onto the Farage’s £5 million corruption scandal, the allegations he breached parliamentary codes by failing to report a financial gift from a crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

According to the mythos of Reform, the Labour Party and Conservative Party, in cahoots, have acted in tandem to harm the nation, and now that the party has a chance to undo this, they have once again conspired to fabricate a scandal to take down their leader. 

But, as with all belief systems, there is a breaking point. And to the anti-establishment Reform base, that breaking point would be the discovery that their leader is corrupt and only leads the party for self-enrichment. 

Farage called the byelection in an attempt to democratise the consequences of the scandal, bypassing the authority of the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner among supporters. Despite the attempt to circumvent the commissioner, the investigation would still go ahead should Farage return as an MP. 

This is Reform transforming from a party attempting to appeal to the whole electorate – usurping the Conservatives – to a party solely dedicated to appeasing their own base. Surrendering legitimacy for staying power. This is something we know works, given American politics over the last decade, but the issue remains that the party is led by a criminal – which tends to hurt the attracting of new members. 

Whereas if Farage loses in Clacton then he can claim the establishment has attacked him and attempted to humiliate him by making him lose to a bin! The investigation ends since he isn’t an MP. And he can, from the sidelines, throw stones, and continue to invite in voters who are disillusioned by Labour and the Conservatives (whilst not peering too closely at Reform policy). 

I submit this: for the defeat of Reform UK to occur nationally, we must favour Reform UK in Clacton-on-Sea. Ensure their leaders face the consequences of their (alleged) corruption. Ensure their trenches have to be dug on these boundaries. Ensure the trial of the far-right occurs on the terms of rule of law rather than their own terms.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/Steve Williams

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