Farage Drives Establishment Mad

They've bottled it!

So he’s taken back control.

Instead of a constant drip drip of media speculation, Nigel Farage has triggered a Clacton by-election.

It’s one he intends to stand in - but the other parties have bottled it.

I find it absolutely fascinating that the Tories and Labour have such little confidence in themselves - or respect for the electorate - that they’ve said they won’t stand.

Remember, we recently saw a Makerfield by-election manufactured to allow Andy Burnham a path back to Parliament.

The Tories stood in that one, receiving a truly dismal 2.2% of the vote.

Yet in Clacton, a seat they recently held, the Conservatives have chosen not to compete.

That represents a remarkable new low for the Tories.

They won in the Clacton constituency with over 30,000 votes and a 72% vote share in 2019.

Yet the Conservative decline under Kemi Badenoch has been so profound that they aren’t even attempting to try and win the seat this time.

Meanwhile the likes of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Greens regularly make absurd claims about Nigel Farage and base much of their arguments around ‘stopping’ him.

But when actually given the chance to take him on at the ballot box, they all seem to have bottled it.

It represents an astonishing level of cowardice and contempt for voters.

Given the absurd smear campaign we’ve seen waged against Nigel by the establishment, it seems their plan is to try and beat him away from the ballot box.

I thought in a democracy, political parties compete to try and win arguments at elections.

Instead, it seems Farage’s opponents are running scared.