2014 Clacton by-election
The 2014 by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Clacton in Essex, England, took place on 9 October 2014. The by-election was triggered by the Conservative MP for Clacton, Douglas Carswell, defecting to the UK Independence Party and subsequently resigning his seat to seek re-election as its candidate.
Standing for UKIP, Carswell retained the seat with 59.7% of the vote, becoming UKIP's first elected MP. The Conservatives came second, and Labour third. According to John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, the result was the biggest increase in the share of a vote for any party in any by-election in history.
Background
On 28 August 2014, Douglas Carswell, a Eurosceptic Conservative backbencher, announced his defection to UKIP and said that he was resigning his seat in order to fight a by-election. He said he did not think Prime Minister David Cameron was "serious about the change we need", adding that "many of those at the top of the Conservative Party are simply not on our side" and "Of course they talk the talk before elections. They say what they feel they must say to get our support when they want our support, but on so many issues – on modernising our politics, on the recall of MPs, on controlling our borders on less government, on bank reform, on cutting public debt, on an EU referendum – they never actually make it happen". He also said: "...local issues regarding planning and overcrowding of GP surgeries were a factor in my decision to resign".Responding to the news that Carswell had defected and would trigger a by-election, Cameron said the contest would be held "as soon as possible". He also confirmed that the Conservatives would contest the by-election. It was later announced that the by-election would be held on 9 October. The poll was one of two parliamentary by-elections the same day, with an election also being held in the constituency of Heywood and Middleton following the death of its MP, Jim Dobbin of Labour.
Analysis of demographics for the constituency prior to the by-election were said to make it the most UKIP-friendly in the country.
2010 general election result
UKIP did not stand a candidate against Douglas Carswell in 2010, citing his Eurosceptic views.Reaction
Most Conservatives condemned Carswell's defection, but some were more supportive of his decision. Conservative backbencher Nigel Evans suggested that the Conservatives should consider not standing in the by-election, which he called "a total distraction". Former Conservative minister Norman Tebbit refused to campaign against Carswell and said "he House of Commons needs men of his quality". Backbencher Zac Goldsmith described Carswell as a "model Parliamentarian" and remarked that "I have nothing but admiration for him".Nick Herbert, a Conservative MP and former policing minister, criticised the Conservative Party for being, in his view, more concerned with the Clacton by-election rather than winning the Scottish independence referendum, which was held on 18 September 2014, during the Clacton campaign.
During the campaign, on 27 September 2014, a second Conservative MP and close friend of Carswell's, Mark Reckless, likewise defected to UKIP and sought re-election in a by-election for his constituency of Rochester and Strood in Kent.
Candidates
UKIP
Carswell announced that he would stand again for the seat as UKIP's candidate, although he was opposed by the recently selected UKIP candidate, Roger Lord, with some local activists speculating that they might not adopt Carswell. Anne Poonian, secretary of Clacton UKIP association, was quoted by Buzzfeed saying that, although she welcomed Carswell's decision to defect, he may not be selected. However, UKIP rules for selecting by-election candidates invested the decision with the National Executive Committee, which selected Carswell. Lord left UKIP and resigned his County Council seat, supporting the Liberal Democrats in the council by-election.Conservative
There was speculation that Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London, would seek the candidacy at the by-election. On 29 August 2014, The Daily Telegraph journalist Peter Oborne wrote that: "David Cameron should go down on his knees and beg Boris Johnson to stand as the Conservative Party's candidate for Clacton in the coming by-election." Two Conservative MPs, Matthew Offord and John Stevenson, wrote a joint article calling for Johnson to stand in the by-election. The bookmaker Ladbrokes offered odds of 33–1 against Johnson standing in Clacton. He ruled out standing, saying that he was intent on fighting Uxbridge and South Ruislip at the general election.The Conservative candidate was the actor and Tendring District councillor Giles Watling who was chosen by an open primary on 11 September. He was shortlisted with Colchester councillor Sue Lissimore. Though he lost this by-election, he went on to win the seat at the 2017 general election after Carswell stood down.
Other candidates
councillor Tim Young had been announced prior to Carswell's resignation as candidate for Labour and was confirmed as their by-election candidate.The Liberal Democrat candidate, Andy Graham, is the former mayor of Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire. He is an actor as well as an author of children's books.
The Green Party candidate was Chris Southall. Southall has stood for the Green Party over the last 40 years and gained some notoriety for a UFO hoax in the 1960s.
Alan "Howling Laud" Hope was the candidate for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. He is also the leader of the party and the former mayor of Ashburton, Devon.
Charlotte Rose and Bruce Sizer were independent candidates. Rose described herself as a "high class courtesan" campaigning "for sexual freedom" and improved sex education in schools. Sizer was a consultant oncologist at Colchester Hospital who stood as a single-issue candidate to get health and cancer care onto the agenda of the political parties. He was Joint Clinical Director of the Essex Cancer Network from 2006 until 2008 and is an honorary research professor at the University of Essex.
Campaign
The Conservatives were mocked by UKIP supporters for sending out a leaflet, called "The Big Clacton Survey" asking voters to prioritise issues including "local train and tube services", despite the fact that the nearest tube station to Clacton is over away. UKIP claimed to have recruited 150 local Conservative members after Carswell's defection.The journalist and former Conservative MP, Matthew Parris, created a controversy by writing in The Times that the Conservatives should be "careless" of Clacton voters’ opinions as "Clacton-on-Sea is going nowhere", remarks which were disowned by local Conservatives and denounced by Carswell as "reflective of what so many in the upper echelons of the Tory party really think" and were cited by two local Conservative councillors as a reason for defecting to UKIP.
An important component of the UKIP campaign was a public meeting of 700 people at the Clacton Coastal Academy with Douglas Carswell and UKIP leader Nigel Farage which was billed as the "biggest public meeting in Clacton in living memory".
Both the Prime Minister David Cameron and the Labour leader Ed Miliband visited the constituency to help their respective party campaigns.
Ten days before the election, the artist Banksy painted a mural on a wall in Clacton which showed five grey pigeons holding three placards. They held the words "go back to Africa" "migrants not welcome", and "keep off our worms". They were directed towards a more colourful migratory swallow perched further along the same wire. The mural was removed by Tendring District Council who had received a complaint that "offensive and racist remarks" had appeared on a wall.
Two days before the election, Boris Johnson was unable to remember the name of the Conservative candidate in the by-election during an interview with Nick Ferrari, saying "he's a superb man. Stirling? Girling? Something like that".