Nigel Farage may have triumphed in Clacton for the second time in two years, but his victory was pyrrhic.
Farage manufactured the by-election to kick up dust around his £5m gift from a crypto billionaire. He tried to grab a thin veneer of democratic legitimacy for him and his now stuttering party. In reality, what he achieved was a crude demonstration of democracy at the service of personal convenience and vanity.
No one really knows what’s next for Farage or Reform, or indeed for UK party politics as a whole. But perhaps, overall, the biggest losers of the by-election were the people of Clacton, whose town was turned into a circus at a time when heat and high prices are playing havoc with their lives.
So, what would it take for the people of Clacton to be given a better electoral offer than the one presented to them yesterday? And could a different candidate offer any realistic hope at the next election?
In a sense it is Andy Burnham who has already shown what is possible.
