Clacton is almost completely coastal, comprising seaside resorts along the Tendring peninsula including Clacton-on-Sea, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze. An estimated 73.0% voted Leave in 2016, 71.6% of homes are owner-occupied, and the median age is about 53…
Farage won Clacton from Tory MP Giles Watling with 46.2% of the vote, ahead of the Conservatives on 27.9%, with a majority of 8,405. Turnout was 58.7%. The swing from Conservative to Reform of 45.1% is the largest swing for any seat at a general election. Britain Elects says: “We’d be looking at Reform obtaining around 60% in Clacton in a general election held today.”
The current Nowcast Projection for Clacton on the last election:
Polling day is likely on the 6th, 13th or 20th August. Star Sports gives Farage an 88% chance of victory. There could in theory be another by-election after that if the standards investigation rules against Farage after he is returned to parliament…
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”