A sunny Friday by Clacton beach is doing little to lift Max Barrett’s mood.
His pick to be the constituency’s next MP, Count Binface, might have won a record 9,455 votes, but it wasn’t enough to defeat Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who was re-elected with 22,239 votes.
Mr Barrett, who has just finished college, is not looking forward to having Mr Farage as his representative in Westminster once again.
“He’s never here. I’ve only seen him on Tuesday and Wednesday when loads of cameras were here,” the 19-year-old tells The Independent.
“It’s never for the area; it’s when it’s a good photo op, really. I don’t agree with a lot of his policies either.
“I think he’s pinned all of the problems on immigration, when that’s not absolutely everything that’s wrong, honestly.”
The election was triggered when Mr Farage resigned over scrutiny regarding donations, after it was announced that he was being investigated by the parliamentary standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg over a £5m gift from cryptocurrency tycoon Christopher Harborne, which he received before taking his seat in the Commons.
That investigation was paused when Mr Farage resigned his seat, but will resume now he has returned to parliament.
In a victory speech, Mr Farage said, hours before the result was formally declared: “The verdict is now in, and it is a convincing, overwhelming win with more votes than we got in the general election of 2024.”
He added: “Today the voters in Clacton have stuck up two fingers to the entire political establishment.”
However, there could be a second by-election in the constituency in a matter of months if the Reform leader is found to have broken parliamentary rules, meaning Clacton would have to gear up to do it again.
Mr Barrett says he would vote for whoever has the best chance of beating Mr Farage at the potential next by-election, but he believes it would make this whole process rather redundant.
“I can understand why they [the main parties] didn’t stand, because it’s a joke of a by-election and you have to kind of treat it like a joke”, he says.
“So for them to not contest a candidate seriously, especially as there’s likely to be one in a few months where they will stand one, I think it’s a good thing, personally.”
Unimpressed with the prospect of another trip to the polling station is Ben, 19, who doesn’t want to give his surname.
About this election, he tells The Independent: “It’s definitely been a waste of time and a waste of the taxpayers’ money.”
Like Mr Barrett, Ben voted for Count Binface, believing such a “joke”candidate summed it up.
“The moment this by-election was called by Nigel Farage, I believe it became a joke and it made Clacton into a joke”, he says.
Mr Farage, a former city trader and Dulwich College alumnus, wanted to present this election as battle against the establishment, and he persisted with that line even when the established, mainstream Westminster parties announced they wouldn’t be fielding candidates for what Sir Keir Starmer described as a “desperate stunt”.
It left the Reform UK leader to compete against a ragtag collection of 33 fringe and independent candidates – the most notable of which was the bin-based comedy character who finished runner up.
Mr Farage then eschewed the count at the town’s leisure centre, saying he was told by police not to attend due to a “credible threat” against him.
Instead he appeared at “Farage fest”, an event in the Essex countryside where he stayed for the entire evening, telling supporters the police had told him about an “organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result”.
“I am damned if I am going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory…. and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies,” he said.
It is unclear whether those “nobodies” are the establishment he claims he’s taking on.
But it is also understood that Essex Police did not advise any candidate not to attend the count.
Reform then cancelled a so-called major speech by its leader scheduled for Friday, as he had already spoken about the result – even if that was before it was declared.
“I think it just shows how little he actually cares about the constituency,” says Mr Barrett.
“It’s more about him trying to look good and trying to be prime minister. That’s all he wants to do. He’s got no care for this area whatsoever.”
However, there is still clearly a lot of support for Mr Farage in this constituency, which elected UKIP’s Douglas Carswell in 2014 and 2015.
The Reform leader increased his vote numbers by around 1,000 from the 2024 general election, though the lack of legitimate opposition may have helped that.
Among them are sisters Jean Brett, 68, and Susan Hughes, 66, who support Mr Farage for his stance on immigration.
It was this hard line that convinced Ms Hughes to vote for him, despite doubts over his finances.
She explains: “I wasn’t going to vote for him. I was going to vote for somebody else. I think he could have been a lot more truthful about the money.
“And I thought if he can’t be honest in a little thing like that, then if he’s going to be a politician, how can you trust him?
“But I changed my view only because he is the only politician that is saying they’ll do something about the mess. People coming into our country.
“And I for one, as a grandmother, I’m frightened, because I’ve got grandchildren and I’ve got other children, and I just worry for their future.
“I just feel like our country’s being taken over, we’re not getting a say in it.”
Ms Hughes also mentions “fighting males” and “Sharia Law” as concerns which led her to vote for Reform.
About the main parties boycotting this race and the prospect of another, she adds: “I have to ask myself, is there something underlying?
“Because why would they let him stand and not stand against him?
“But for the fact that nobody stood, it’s almost like a cowboy session, isn’t it?
“They’ve obviously wanted to make him a bit of a ridicule, I think, but he’s shown them because he’s won, because people are just fed up with it all.”
But for those who have no desire to vote for Mr Farage and do not wish to endorse joke candidates either, this election left them with nowhere to go.
It has left a feeling among some in this seaside town that they were the losers from this process.
“The whole process, in our minds, was a disgrace”, says Sue Wackett, 70, enjoying the sun with her husband John.
“No Labour candidate, no Tory candidate. Lots of people that don’t live in Clacton don’t understand the local problems that we do have here.
“The outcome was as expected. We felt let down because we didn’t have a candidate that we wanted to vote for – and when you’ve voted all your life, and there was nobody for you to vote for, it’s disgraceful.
“I think the Tory and Labour Party should look at themselves and be ashamed, because Clacton people matter.
“They might have treated it as a joke and thought Nigel Farage didn’t deserve it, but for us locals, it meant a lot.”
