The Clacton by-election is a chance to “put Brexit back on the political agenda” and force the mainstream parties to consider rejoining the EU, a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) who is running against Nigel Farage has claimed.
John Stevens, who is standing for the Rejoin the EU Party in the Clacton by-election, has warned that voters in the Essex constituency are unhappy with the media portrayal of the by-election as an unserious contest between Mr Farage and comedian candidate Count Binface.
“This is not a joke election from the perspective of people in Clacton,” he tells The Independent. I can tell you the Binface saga is going down like a lead balloon. People feel they are the butt of an inside Westminster joke.”
Instead he claims that voters in the constituency, particularly young people and women, are much more receptive to the idea of rejoining the EU, even though Clacton was one of the strongest areas for Leave a decade ago.
But he warned that Nigel Farage wants “North Korean levels of support” of 95 per cent or more in the by-election which the main parties have refused to contest.
Mr Stevens, who was a Conservative MEP for a decade up to 1999, told the Independent: “People nationally need to understand this is not Binface versus Farage. It is an opportunity to hit Farage where it really hurts.
“If he gets a significant anti-Brexit vote… that is far more damaging to him and to the Reform cause than simply being humiliated by a dustbin.”
However, with Clacton voting 70 per cent for Leave in 2016 and Essex 62 per cent overall, he admitted: “It may not work, but this is an opportunity and it’s worth a risk for me because it could embolden the pro-European side.”
Mr Stevens added: “Having a by-election in Makerfield to make someone prime minister is one thing, but to get us back into the EU is another. If I can do well here I hope the main parties will be emboldened to put rejoining back on the table.”
He insisted that his message is getting a hearing in Clacton as he knocks on doors.
“Quite a few people say ‘no, well, Brexit hasn’t worked,’ or ‘I was against it,’ particularly many women more than men,” Mr Stevens says.
“On these new estates, younger people with families question Brexit, and I’m saying, ‘this is your chance to have an absolutely clean fight to express an opinion on something which nobody’s talking about – not even Nigel Farage wants to talk about Brexit.’”
Mr Burnham said last September that he supported rejoining, but then retreated from that remark when he stood in a pro-Leave seat in Makerfield.
However, Mr Stevens believes: “Labour backbenchers all are all in favour of rejoining the EU.”
The candidate, a former City trader like Mr Farage, believes though that the answer to reversing Brexit is for former Remainers like him to admit they made mistakes a decade ago as well and not just blame Leave voters.
“I do believe very strongly that we mustn’t have a confrontation between Leavers and Remainers. It’s important for Remainers to say that, and I do believe this actually completely, that we had as much of a role in getting the Brexit result in 2016 as the Leavers.
“So this is all about not saying, well, ‘you were wrong and you know we were right and we’ve been vindicated.’
“It’s got to be much more. It’s got to be different. It’s got to be much more reconciliatory. It’s just ‘we all made a mistake and we’re all going to correct it together.’”
