"This is getting ridiculous," one local told me last week as the nominations piled up. By the time Tendring District Council posted the list, 34 names stared back from the board at Clacton Town Hall. Nigel Farage returns for Reform UK. Count Binface, three Monster Raving Loony candidates including Howling Laud Hope, Laurence Fox for Reclaim, and a small army of 20 independents complete a field that shatters the previous record of 26 set in Haltemprice and Howden back in 2008.
The poll is set for 13 August. Yet where are Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats or the Greens? Not one of them could be bothered to field a candidate. That absence speaks louder than any novelty candidate's slogan. These parties, which once competed fiercely for every seat, have collectively decided Clacton is not worth the effort. One wonders what message that sends to the people who live there.
The real message behind the farce
Farage resigned his seat on 7 July amid scrutiny over personal finances. The by-election that followed has become a magnet for every eccentric with a nomination form and a few quid for the deposit. Some will campaign on serious issues. Most will not. The spectacle risks turning a serious constituency into a circus, yet the bigger scandal is the vacuum the mainstream parties have left behind.
Clacton has shown consistent support for Reform UK's focus on sovereignty, controlled borders and policies that put British citizens first. When the major parties retreat rather than compete on those grounds, they confirm what many voters already suspect: they would rather ignore uncomfortable priorities than debate them. The record candidate list is less a celebration of democratic vitality than a symptom of institutional decay.
The major parties' decision not to stand tells you everything about how they view seats where voters have repeatedly rejected their consensus on migration and national identity.
History offers parallels. By-elections have long served as protest vehicles, from the SDP surge in the early 1980s to UKIP's breakthroughs two decades ago. What feels different now is the scale of abstention by the establishment. No serious challenge from the governing party or the official opposition. Just a field of fringe voices and one returning heavyweight who triggered the contest in the first place.
What voters actually want
The Statement of Persons Nominated, published by acting returning officer Ian Davidson, makes for peculiar reading. Alongside the serious candidates sit monikers that belong in a student union bar, not a parliamentary ballot. This is what happens when politics feels performative rather than consequential. Voters in Clacton, like many elsewhere, care about housing pressures, NHS waiting lists, and above all whether their communities remain recognisable and manageable.
