𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The numbers say he did. Final figures show Farage won with 63.3% of the vote on a turnout of 44.4%. Given the media outcry against him, that’s a solid result. The Reform leader called it a “convincing, overwhelming win”, with more votes than he received in the 2024 general election. You wouldn’t know that by reading the papers. Anybody would have thought he’d been knocked out for the count. Or rather, by Count Binface. Yet Farage is already back on his feet. A little shaky, but still very much standing.

Not according to the establishment. It’s been lining up to damn the Clacton by-election as a joke and a farce. They’ve attacked Farage for skipping the count, dismissed his claims that he faced “credible threats” to his safety, sneered at his victory as “predictable” and hailed Count Binface as some kind of political wit and sage. They’re rubbing their hands with glee, knowing the Parliamentary watchdog probe into his £5million crypto gift has already restarted.

His enemies are so desperate to gloat that it all starts to feel suspicious. They’re making a mistake. This will play straight into Farage’s hands, suggesting a system desperately trying to squeeze him out of the national conversation. Just as they’ve shouted down millions of ordinary Britain for years. They’ll continue to accuse Farage of every ‘ism’ under the sun. If they can’t nail him as a racist, sexist, Little Englander migrant basher, they’ll get him on a technicality. Clacton voters just stuck two fingers up at them.

It’s what they do to so-called populists. They’ve done it in the US with Donald Trump and in France with Marine Le Pen, whose corruption conviction was upheld last month.

The contrast with Burnham’s Makerfield win is stunning. Suddenly, that’s a different story altogether. Makerfield didn’t just sweep Andy Burnham back into Parliament but straight into Number 10. That was a sheer vanity trip, but he’s hailed as the Messiah while Farage is devil incarnate.

Burnham, by the way, got 54.8% of the vote. How did The Guardian describe that? “Striking”. It even argued that, with turnout variable, percentages can be a more useful relative measure than absolute votes. With sheer hypocrisy, it said yesterday that Farage’s 63.3% share was “no overwhelming victory”. So 54.8% is striking when Burnham gets it, while Farage’s 63.3% is a failure.

Critics complain that Clacton cost voters £250,000. Reform even offered to cover it, but was refused. Electing a new Mayor of Manchester cost almost £5million. And that’s on top of the £226,000 Makerfield bill. Yet that’s money well spent, apparently.

Nobody seems to mention that Makerfield was triggered by the sitting Labour MP resigning, with the promise of a £100,000 a year bung and a seat in the Lords, allowing Burnham to sweep not only into Parliament but all the way to Number 10. Voted PM by just 26,000 of the population.

When Clacton was called, Burnham laughed in Farage’s face by posting an image of himself with Count Binface writing: “Always worth knowing when bin day is.” The left is celebrating the Burnham bounce, but the next general election is still a long way off and that bounce is already fading. Burnham is promising things he can’t deliver, and the boats are getting bigger, as is the asylum revolt. Cack-handed attempts to cast Farage out into the wilderness will only make a supporters like him more. As he warned rivals exclusively in the Express: “We are only just getting started”.

Reform voters are loyal. They’re sticking by their man. They know Farage isn’t perfect. They know that if he ever did win power, the establishment would do everything it could to block him, especially on the boats. They also know he faces credible threats. Plenty of people wish him ill. Despite winning four million votes at the last election, the state won’t pay a penny protect him. Even after what happened to Ann Widdecombe.

But when the Parliamentary watchdog eventually finds against him (as it surely will) and forces another by-election, there will be only one winner. Farage. Again.