Reform UK discussion

[oldman]

The turnout in 2024 was less than 60% so all this 'he got less than X% of the electorate' stuff is a bit meaningless. If I was a Faragiste, I would be happy that the great leader's vote stood up. He got the votes he wanted.

 

[Purple Train]

That is an utterly embarrassing result for Farage. He was standing against no one, and still got less than two thirds of the vote, and his inability to turn up won't win him any friends either.

 

[The Ham]

"Apparently" he was told not to attend the count by the police, so he's already avoiding Clacton on Sea.

 

[Robin Edwards]

"Apparently" he was told not to attend the count by the police, so he's already avoiding Clacton on Sea.

Something Essex Police have denied "Apparently"

 

[nlogax]

"Apparently" he was told not to attend the count by the police, so he's already avoiding Clacton on Sea.

He chickened out. That's all there is to it. It doesn't actually sound like there were many of his supporters in the room.

 

[The Ham]

Something Essex Police have denied "Apparently"

Also confirmed by another candidate:

 

[S101]

That is an utterly embarrassing result for Farage. He was standing against no one, and still got less than two thirds of the vote, and his inability to turn up won't win him any friends either.

It's not really is it. He clearly won. If he was so universally hated, as is made out by general opinion on here, the loony bin would have won.

With turnout of 44.37% that means that 28.10% of the electorate voted for Farage,

I mean, steady on, Labour are only in with 33.7% of the electorate. And the current PM wasn't voted for. Two Thirds of the population didn't vote Labour.

He’s a coward, and Reform tell bare faced lies

Nothing new then

Purely hypothetical question. IF he is found to have not done anything wrong (unlikely I accept) what stance will you take on him and his £5m? Remember, I said 'IF'. Is it just back to calling him a racist because he wants and end to unlimited illegal immigration, that adds only a burden to the UK.

I guess if you hate someone, there will always be a way to sling insults. Especially if they're an MP.

 

[ainsworth74]

It's not really is it. He clearly won. If he was so universally hated, as is made out by general opinion on here, the loony bin would have won.

In Clacton without any real opposition he should have been winning by North Korean levels of voter share.

 

[The Ham]

In Clacton without any real opposition he should have been winning by North Korean levels of voter share.

Indeed should be at least 80%, anything less than 70% should be embarrassing.

 

[AlterEgo]

Surely, 11.95% of the electorate voted for Binface.

That requires nearly everyone to sign a recall petition to then have another stupid election.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Aug 2026 ==

"Apparently" he was told not to attend the count by the police, so he's already avoiding Clacton on Sea.

A lie on his part. Ever the victim, like his voters. I find it all so desperately unappealing, even more so than his policies.

 

[S101]

In Clacton without any real opposition he should have been winning by North Korean levels of voter share.

Unfortunately, you cannot force people to vote. 26.9% voted for the bin. They are the ones who hate Farage. The people who did't vote at all because they can't be bothered are a massive problem. So by that, does it mean that the people who did't vote, don't mind Farage, but can't be bothered to vote?

 

[Robin Edwards]

It's not really is it. He clearly won. If he was so universally hated, as is made out by general opinion on here, the loony bin would have won.

I mean, steady on, Labour are only in with 33.7% of the electorate. And the current PM wasn't voted for. Two Thirds of the population didn't vote Labour.

Purely hypothetical question. IF he is found to have not done anything wrong (unlikely I accept) what stance will you take on him and his £5m? Remember, I said 'IF'. Is it just back to calling him a racist because he wants and end to unlimited illegal immigration, that adds only a burden to the UK.

I guess if you hate someone, there will always be a way to sling insults. Especially if they're an MP.

A few points : nobody votes for the PM in a General Election, I'm sure you realise that.

Secondly, it's reasonable in my book to call out racists and Farage has spent his lifetime in pursuit of division and hate around foreigners in Britain. The parties of the far-right are modern-day National Front. Just check the things they both stand/stood for.

Claiming asylum having arrived in a country doesn't equate to being "Illegal" just because political parties say they are. I'm sure you know this too though.

For me, securing less than 30% of the electorate when you're the only real candidate represents a huge embarrassment rather than anything more meaningful. An egotistical waste of ££ and circus sideshow for Clacton.

 

[The Ham]

unlimited illegal immigration

In 2024 there were less than 110,000 asylum seekers, I recon a single restaurant could sell more unlimited drinks refills (about 300 per day) than the number of "unlimited" illegal immigrants.

 

[ainsworth74]

Unfortunately, you cannot force people to vote. 26.9% voted for the bin. They are the ones who hate Farage. The people who did't vote at all because they can't be bothered are a massive problem. So by that, does it mean that the people who did't vote, don't mind Farage, but can't be bothered to vote?

I'm talking about those who did vote. Of those who voted he should have been winning North Korean levels of vote share. I've never put much stock in people that start rambling on about hypothetical voters who could have voted but didn't. We have no idea what they think. But with no real opposition beyond a man who wanders around with a plastic bin for a head Farage should have done better than he did in what is absolutely the perfect seat for him.

If the Tories had run and he'd got 63% of the vote then fair enough that would be a proper shellacking for the Tories and a resounding win for Farage. But to get 63% of the vote when none of the main parties are running and your opposition is a man with a plastic bin on his head? I mean it's a clear victory don't get me wrong. But in Clacton? With that opposition? He should have been pulling in 80% of the vote.

The other thing is that if Clacton, which is the perfect seat for Farage, has 26% of the vote going to the man with the bin for a head I'd be getting nervous about what that might mean in less Reform hospitable parts of the country that we need to win if we're going to reach a majority.

 

[BAFRA77]

Looks like it’s back on. So a monumental waste of time and taxpayer money so the small child could have a sulk in the corner

https://news.sky.com/story/politics...-badenoch-tories-nigel-farage-reform-12593360

Farage investigation reopened by parliamentary commissioner​

The investigation into Nigel Farage's donations has been reopened.
When he stood down as an MP, the investigation was paused, as per the allegations currently under investigation by the parliamentary commissioner for standards.
This pause has now been undone, according to the Commons website.

 

[martin butler]

By refusing to show up for, the results, doesn't that show what he really thinks of the people who voted for him, and Clacton in general?

I would not be surprised if he was already en-route to somewhere else, to continuing his grifting, somewhere like the US?

So, if, he is found to have broken parliamentary rules, what does that tell you about how he views parliament and democracy in general? preferring to grift his many other activities to doing what he is being paid for being an MP?

 

[SuspectUsual]

Purely hypothetical question. IF he is found to have not done anything wrong (unlikely I accept) what stance will you take on him and his £5m? Remember, I said 'IF'. Is it just back to calling him a racist because he wants and end to unlimited illegal immigration, that adds only a burden to the UK.

I guess if you hate someone, there will always be a way to sling insults. Especially if they're an MP.

If he’s cleared, then I won’t complain. I have to have trust in the system.

Will it stop me calling him a racist? No, because in my opinion he is a racist

I don’t personally see the need to conflate two separate issues - his racism and his funding

And if you wanted to stop “unlimited illegal immigration” you might be well served to look at the numbers by year, notice how they massively increased from the beginning of 2021 onwards, and ask yourself what happened at that point.

(Clue - it was the withdrawal from the EU and the end of our right to return people to France. What you see now is a direct consequence of what Farage campaigned for. But no, of course Nigel is just a victim….)

 

[Harpo]

You think 10% of the electorate will decide to sign a petition to have another election?

12% of them turned up in person for Binface.

 

[BAFRA77]

It's not really is it. He clearly won. If he was so universally hated, as is made out by general opinion on here, the loony bin would have won.

I mean, steady on, Labour are only in with 33.7% of the electorate. And the current PM wasn't voted for. Two Thirds of the population didn't vote Labour.

Purely hypothetical question. IF he is found to have not done anything wrong (unlikely I accept) what stance will you take on him and his £5m? Remember, I said 'IF'. Is it just back to calling him a racist because he wants and end to unlimited illegal immigration, that adds only a burden to the UK.

I guess if you hate someone, there will always be a way to sling insults. Especially if they're an MP.

“if you hate someone, there will always be a way to sling insults”, is rich, given the argument itself begins by calling opponents “the loony bin”. That is not a plea for civility. It is a demand that one side be allowed to sneer while the other side politely files a written complaint.


So, stripped of the bluster, the argument amounts to this: Farage can do no wrong, Labour is illegitimate because percentages suddenly matter, the prime minister is illegitimate because the writer has just discovered parliamentary democracy, and any criticism of Farage is probably just hatred unless it comes pre-approved by his supporters.


That is not a political argument. It is a grievance wearing a rosette.

 

[Purple Train]

It's not really is it. He clearly won. If he was so universally hated, as is made out by general opinion on here, the loony bin would have won.

Firstly, it was in Clacton, which is several orders of magnitude more predisposed to Farage than the country as a whole - otherwise he wouldn't have unceremoniously booted Tony Mack out and stood himself in 2024.

Secondly, I'm not quite sure about "North Korean vote share", but, in the 2022 Southend West by-election held after the murder of Sir David Amess - a fairly safe Conservative seat which went Labour in 2024 - the Conservative candidate, who had no real opposition just as in this case, won 87% of the vote at a time when Boris Johnson and the Conservatives were massively unpopular. Even David Davis's random by-election in 2008, in which he stood again but was boycotted by most other parties, resulted in 72% of the vote going to Davis. Yet Farage can't even crack two thirds of the vote, running against a man with a bin on his head, three self-proclaimed loonies, the Everyone Is God Party, and Laurence Fox. It's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

 

[SuspectUsual]

And please, nobody complain about 11,000 people voting for the bin - 347 voted for Laurence Fox!

 

[35B]

Firstly, it was in Clacton, which is several orders of magnitude more predisposed to Farage than the country as a whole - otherwise he wouldn't have unceremoniously booted Tony Mack out and stood himself in 2024.

Secondly, I'm not quite sure about "North Korean vote share", but, in the 2022 Southend West by-election held after the murder of Sir David Amess - a fairly safe Conservative seat which went Labour in 2024 - the Conservative candidate, who had no real opposition just as in this case, won 87% of the vote at a time when Boris Johnson and the Conservatives were massively unpopular. Even David Davis's random by-election in 2008, in which he stood again but was boycotted by most other parties, resulted in 72% of the vote going to Davis. Yet Farage can't even crack two thirds of the vote, running against a man with a bin on his head, three self-proclaimed loonies, the Everyone Is God Party, and Laurence Fox. It's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

It's worse than that for Farage. By elections after the murder of a sitting MP are genuinely pretty pro-forma, while Davis fought in 2008 on an agenda, however bizarre. NF tried to lay claim to that kind of mantle, and it didn't really wash.

This is before the results of any parliamentary inquiry, and a decision around a recall election.

He's failed to get the cloak of immunity he wanted, which means that if he faces a by-election due to a successful recall petition*, he will be a twice adjudged dodgy dealer.

* - one of the minor ironies here is that the concept of recall petitions was driven by a predecessor as MP in Clacton, who won it for NF's then party and then fell out with him. I suspect Douglas Carswell will be looking at events and wishing that the full fat version of a recall petition he'd campaigned for had been introduced.

 

[martin butler]

Reform to me seems very much on a par with Maga, in that the leader is seen by supporters as being God like, to them, willingly ignoring the facts, that their chosen deity is very corrupt, and self-serving, and is just really laughing at their collective stupidity

 

[alex397]

Reform to me seems very much on a par with Maga, in that the leader is seen by supporters as being God like, to them, willingly ignoring the facts, that their chosen deity is very corrupt, and self-serving, and is just really laughing at their collective stupidity

It’s probably a great source of laughter down at the East India Club, of which Nigel is a member (which still doesn’t allow women).

I don’t think Nigel could come across as more establishment if he tried, but his followers seem to be completely blind to that, despite overwhelming evidence otherwise.

 

[JamesT]

12% of them turned up in person for Binface.

At a polling station close by to them where an election was happening. Not sure all of them will go out of their way to go sign a petition. How many are going to do a "Brenda from Bristol" when presented with the possibility?

 

[oldman]

If the Tories had run and he'd got 63% of the vote then fair enough that would be a proper shellacking for the Tories and a resounding win for Farage. But to get 63% of the vote when none of the main parties are running and your opposition is a man with a plastic bin on his head? I mean it's a clear victory don't get me wrong. But in Clacton? With that opposition? He should have been pulling in 80% of the vote.

80%, really? In 2024 20K voted for him, slightly more voted for other mainstream candidates. In 2026 20K voted for him, about half as many voted for a joke candidate who successfully pitched himself as the stop-Farage candidate. Enough people who hadn't voted for Farage before voted against Farage to give Binface his 10K.

To get 80% he would have needed there to be no semi-serious contender (as I would have like), and for his supporters still to have turned out with nothing to vote against.

Reform to me seems very much on a par with Maga, in that

... opponents find it easier to sneer at those who support them instead of exploring why. But then they're stupid people, aren't they? Not like us.

 

[SuspectUsual]

At a polling station close by to them where an election was happening. Not sure all of them will go out of their way to go sign a petition. How many are going to do a "Brenda from Bristol" when presented with the possibility?

Is going online and ticking a box harder than going out to the polling station?

And remember, we have Farage apologists reminding us it’s the summer holidays and people are away, which is why the turnout was lower than it might have been. That argument applies to those who oppose him too

 

[styles]

The turnout in 2024 was less than 60% so all this 'he got less than X% of the electorate' stuff is a bit meaningless. If I was a Faragiste, I would be happy that the great leader's vote stood up. He got the votes he wanted.

It's always a poor argument in my opinion.

No election in British history has achieved a 100% turnout. Pointing out that less than X% of the electorate voted for somebody doesn't really mean anything because there's only a handful of constituencies in the UK where if you multiply the vote share by the turnout you actually get a majority of the constituents voting for that candidate. On the vast majority of constituencies in the UK, a majority of the voting population doesn't vote for the winning candidate.

For what it's worth, I think the three main parties choosing not to stand in opposition to Farage was a mistake. I appreciate why they did it, but they did effectively hand him a victory.

 

[SuspectUsual]

It's always a poor argument in my opinion.

No election in British history has achieved a 100% turnout. Pointing out that less than X% of the electorate voted for somebody doesn't really mean anything because there's only a handful of constituencies in the UK where if you multiply the vote share by the turnout you actually get a majority of the constituents voting for that candidate. On the vast majority of constituencies in the UK, a majority of the voting population doesn't vote for the winning candidate.

Oddly enough I had a look at the data from the last election a few days ago, as someone on Twitter was saying the law should be changed so that only candidates that got over half the electorate voting for them should be allowed to be MPs. From memory it was just under 20% of constituencies last time round

 

[pokemonsuper9]

It's always a poor argument in my opinion.

No election in British history has achieved a 100% turnout. Pointing out that less than X% of the electorate voted for somebody doesn't really mean anything because there's only a handful of constituencies in the UK where if you multiply the vote share by the turnout you actually get a majority of the constituents voting for that candidate. On the vast majority of constituencies in the UK, a majority of the voting population doesn't vote for the winning candidate.

Yes, my point about the portion of the electorate was a joke about people who like voting (given one candidate ran on a policy of preventing a second by-election), and an indication that over 10% of the electorate (the required amount for a recall petition) voted against Farage.