{"id":682151,"date":"2026-07-09T11:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682151\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:05:10","slug":"reform-activists-urged-to-switch-focus-from-manchester-to-farages-clacton-contest-reform-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682151\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform activists urged to switch focus from Manchester to Farage\u2019s Clacton contest | Reform UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reform UK activists have been urged to divert from the Greater Manchester<\/a> mayoral byelection to support Nigel Farage\u2019s \u201cfake\u201d contest 250 miles away in Clacton.<\/p>\n

A WhatsApp message shared with party members in north-west England said: \u201cThe message could not be more clear. We now need all of our fantastic activists, branch officers and councillors to come and help us in Clacton.\u201d<\/p>\n

The text, seen by the Guardian, urges members to complete a volunteering form for the Essex<\/a> byelection, adding: \u201cWe look forward to seeing you in Clacton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reform UK had hoped to claim its biggest scalp yet in Greater Manchester, which is electing a new mayor after Andy Burnham won the Makerfield byelection<\/a> to set him on a path to No 10.<\/p>\n

Farage\u2019s party won heavily across the region of 2 million voters in the May local elections, gaining 106 seats, and polling indicates it is narrowly behind Labour.<\/p>\n

However, its campaign in Greater Manchester appears to have been upended by Farage\u2019s decision to call a snap byelection<\/a> in his Clacton constituency amid questions over his financial interests<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s candidate, Bev Craig, is the favourite to win the Greater Manchester byelection, which will be the biggest ever held in Britain<\/a>, on 30 July. The Clacton contest is expected to take place a week later, on 6 August.<\/p>\n

A Reform UK<\/a> councillor who received the WhatsApp message, sent on Wednesday, said the party was \u201cdesperate\u201d to show support for its embattled leader, even at the expense of surrendering the chance to win the mayoralty.<\/p>\n

They said it suggested the party \u201cdon\u2019t believe they can win\u201d in Burnham\u2019s back yard and that would give further ammunition to claims it had \u201ca woman problem\u201d, as campaigners are diverted from helping its Greater Manchester candidate, Sian Astley, a local businesswoman and television personality.<\/p>\n

Reform UK has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Farage announced on Tuesday he was standing down<\/a> from the seat he has held since the 2024 general election and would put himself forward again in what he has sought to portray as a \u201cpeople versus the establishment\u201d contest.<\/p>\n

However, his strategy appears to have backfired as his main rivals announced within hours they would boycott the byelection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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At present, only the novelty candidate Count Binface<\/a> and the former actor Laurence Fox, leader of the rightwing Reclaim party, have announced they will stand against Farage.<\/p>\n

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, described the Clacton contest as a \u201cfake byelection\u201d, while Labour called it a \u201ccircus\u201d and the Lib Dems billed it as \u201cFarage\u2019s vanity project\u201d.<\/p>\n

Labour has told activists that the threat from Reform is \u201creal\u201d in Greater Manchester after the \u201ccataclysmic\u201d local elections eight weeks ago, when Labour lost 108 councillors.<\/p>\n

Reform won 106 seats overall, including all but one of the 25 up for grabs in Wigan and 18 out of 19 in Tameside, once solidly Labour areas. The Green party, which also made significant gains in May, is believed to be in third place in the Greater Manchester byelection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reform UK activists have been urged to divert from the Greater Manchester mayoral byelection to support Nigel Farage\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-682151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}