The Circus Comes to Clacton: Why a Seaside Town Is Tuning Out Farage's By-Election Farce

Over the past two years, Clacton has been treated as a case study of Britain's political sclerosis, an opportunity to talk about division, deprivation and revenge. It elected Nigel Farage as an MP in 2024, and because the Reform UK leader has triggered a byelection in the seaside constituency to shore up his support, on Thursday it is being asked if it will do so again. It's also being asked to consider the pledges of a man dressed as a bin and those of 32 other candidates entering the race from as far afield as Australia. Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are boycotting the election as a farce, but here the feeling is broadly mutual. The view on the ground is that turnout will be low. The view everywhere else is that Farage will probably win the byelection but lose much of what remains of his credibility, not least because once re-installed as MP, he could yet face an investigation into undeclared gifts, which would lead to another byelection.

In Clacton the machinations of national politics seem less of an instrument of change than a sideshow. The real story is happening two miles south of its arcades and fairground rides, in the coastal village of Jaywick.

Jaywick: A Community That Defies Its Reputation

Jaywick doesn't get much in the way of tourism. Nor was it mentioned in Farage's recent campaign video, explaining what he has done for the constituency. Outside the community centre, a teenager wearing a Nirvana T-shirt says she dislikes that the media always latches on to the fact that Jaywick is consistently ranked as the most deprived area in England. "They do like to put us in a bad place and say we're really deprived," she says. "How could you say it's deprived when you've got such lovely people around here?"

Inside the centre, young people are rehearsing a variety show to raise money for Sonny's Army, run by Jaywick residents Bobbie-Jean Halls Smith and Destiny Hannam. They started the charity when they were 12 and 16, inspired by Halls Smith's brother, Sonny, who was born with a rare heart condition. Halls Smith and Hannam are also the masterminds behind the recent Jaywick Carnival, designed to show off a different side of the place.

"We all treat each other like family," the teenager outside the centre says. "We don't treat each other like family," Danell, Sonny's mother, interjects. "We are family."

The Garden That Teaches Children About Food

Barry Shimell, who lives in a beachfront house with Suzy, his wife of 54 years, runs Jaywick's community garden. In good times, the garden overflows with beetroot, radishes and onions. It is looking a little sad today because of the hot summer. Classrooms are about to be installed in the garden so that children can visit and learn about the land.

"We've had kids come down here, and we've told them they could pick strawberries and any other fruit they liked," Shimell says, "and they said: 'We can't eat them; they're poisonous.'"

The garden is more than just a patch of green—it's a classroom, a community hub, and a symbol of resilience. In a place that has been written off by outsiders, it represents the determination of locals to take control of their own lives. It also reveals the scale of the challenge: when children don't know that strawberries are safe to eat, it speaks to a deeper disconnection from the basics of life.

Pride and Self-Reliance

From the outside, Jaywick doesn't seem to have much going for it. But locals say they are happy. "I love it here," a woman called Sarah says from her doorstep. "People say stuff about Jaywick but they don't know what they're talking about. The community is beautiful. He was in hospital a little while ago," she says, pointing to her partner. "He nearly died on these steps. Everyone here was saying: 'Sarah, do you need anything?'"

The attitude in Jaywick is that if you need something done, you don't wait for politicians to help. "It's like that streetlight," says Amanda, a former Royal Mail driver who is medically retired. "Prior to me making a complaint, it hadn't worked for seven years."

This self-reliance is both a strength and a symptom. It reflects a community that has learned not to expect anything from those in power. When a streetlight goes unfixed for seven years, it's not just an inconvenience it's a message about who matters and who doesn't.

Skepticism About Regeneration

It is not clear whether any national politician has been able to reckon with a place like Jaywick, which is proud of its idiosyncrasies and suspicious of interventions. In 2024, Tendring District Council, which is under no overall control, adopted a £126m plan to regenerate the area over 20 years. While this includes upgrading bus stops and improving beach access, local people aren't sure about everything that has been proposed. "They're saying you can come out of the bungalows and go into brand new houses," Shimell says. "People don't want to because they've got their neighbours."

The suspicion of top-down regeneration reflects a deeper truth: communities like Jaywick have learned that outsiders often don't understand what they actually need. They value their neighbours, their relationships, and their way of life, and they're not willing to trade it for shiny new houses that would uproot their social networks.

A Mixed Reception for Reform

Reform gets a mixed reception. Sarah supports the party, while Amanda says she "won't even entertain Farage". But the prevailing feeling is apathy. No one appears to be campaigning in the area, and it's only when prompted that residents show any interest in whether Farage will regain his seat.

"[Politicians] come down here, and say: 'We'll sweep the road. Vote for us'," Shimell says. "After that, they're gone in 10 minutes."

The lack of campaigning reflects the broader disillusionment. The major parties have boycotted the election, and even Reform's presence on the ground has been inconsistent. Farage himself has been absent from much of the campaign, preferring to appear in carefully staged videos rather than engage with the realities of the constituency.

The By-Election as Sideshow

More than a dozen byelection candidates took part in a hustings event in Clacton-on-Sea last week. Farage gave it a miss, but the Reform leader does seem to be taking the byelection at least somewhat seriously. Reform activists were reportedly diverted from the Greater Manchester mayoral election, where the party had initially seemed like a contender, in favour of Clacton. With no appearance from Farage on the campaign trail, the party dropped to third place. Instead, he's been on the stump in Clacton, despite the lack of mainstream competition. Raheem Kassam, editor of Breitbart London and a former Farage adviser, has also been based in the constituency over the past few weeks to campaign for the party.

A Call for Systemic Change

Martin Suker, a Labour supporter from Clacton, thinks wholesale change is needed to stop more byelections turning into a farce. "The people in deprivation voting for Reform are not doing it because they're in deprivation," he says. "They're voting for an opportunity to feel that their voice is heard." His proposed solutions are proportional representation and more devolution, policies supported by the new prime minister, Andy Burnham.

That might make sense in Labour HQ but they are surely too neat a solution for Jaywick, where many locals are well past politics and derive meaning elsewhere. When a streetlight goes unfixed for seven years, a 34-candidate byelection involving Howling Laud Hope, Nick the Incredible Flying Brick, Count Binface and Nigel Farage is unlikely to offer all that much.

A Divided Verdict

The outcome of the byelection which will be a referendum on Farage's leadership, whether he wins or loses will almost certainly be overshadowed by the broader political narrative. If he wins, it will be portrayed as a vindication of Reform UK's message. If he loses, it will be seen as the beginning of the end of his political career.

But the people of Jaywick seem less concerned with the national narrative than with their own lives. For them, the byelection is just another distraction a sideshow that does little to address the challenges they face every day.

The byelection in Clacton is a microcosm of Britain's political dysfunction: a cast of 34 candidates, a boycott by the main parties, and a leader who is more focused on his own credibility than on the needs of his constituents. But the real story is in Jaywick, where a community has learned to rely on itself, not because it wants to, but because it has to.

As the counting begins on Thursday, the nation's attention will be fixed on Clacton. But in Jaywick, the focus will be on the community garden, the charity run by two teenagers, and the streetlight that finally got fixed after seven years. The circus of British politics is always evolving, but for the people of Jaywick, the show goes on with or without Nigel Farage.

The circus of British politics is always evolving. But in Jaywick, the real show is the community that refuses to be defined by deprivation.