Clacton voters weigh jobs, housing and immigration ahead of by-election

The ballot paper for Clacton's by-election will be the longest in British electoral history and will cost four times as much to print as a regular ballot paper. Clacton voters will go to the polls on Thursday 13 August after Nigel Farage resigned as MP to force a fresh contest and seek the seat again. The ballot has drawn 34 candidates, a record for a British parliamentary election, while Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and Restore Britain have all declined to stand.

In 2022, Clacton recorded the highest economic inactivity rate in the country at 46.8%, and the area is heavily reliant on the NHS and social care. On the Essex coast, voters in Clacton-on-Sea and the wider Tendring area have seen the seat swing sharply over the years, from Labour in the predecessor Harwich seat in 1997 and 2001 to UKIP in 2014-17 and then Reform UK in 2024.

Farage won Clacton at the 2024 general election with a majority of 8,405 on a turnout of 58.7%, and held the seat from 4 July 2024 to 8 July 2026 before it became vacant.

Ipsos found that 33% of British adults preferred Count Binface to Farage in a hypothetical head-to-head, compared with 21% for Farage, while 74% said the parliamentary standards commissioner should investigate whether Farage broke parliamentary rules. Lord Ashcroft's July focus groups in Clacton also found voters talking about allegations over a £5 million bung and whether Farage was using the contest to show that local people still wanted him. Farage's campaign launch in Clacton was marked by a milkshake being thrown at him, and Essex Police later arrested a 25-year-old woman on suspicion of assault and a man on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.