“I stopped Nigel Farage becoming an MP in 2010, but on my second objective, I failed,” one of the candidates standing in Clacton told GB News.
While Mr Farage is not facing a challenge from the main parties on August 13, a familiar foe is hoping to go against the grain by telling Clacton’s pro-Brexit voters they were wrong.
John Stevens, a former Conservative MEP who quit the Tories over Europe, last faced off against Mr Farage when the pair stood against then-Speaker John Bercow in Buckingham in 2010.
“The only real quasi-parallel is that Buckingham then was the Speaker’s seat and so was not contested by the main parties,” Mr Stevens said.
“Nigel Farage thought that because of this, he had a real chance of winning, which was right, because Mr Bercow had made himself very unpopular with Conservatives over his reliance on Labour support to become Speaker.
“That is why I ran. I knew he would be very dangerous to our membership of the EU as an MP and not just an MEP.”
Buckingham was perhaps not the best seat for Mr Farage to contest in 2010, with the seat containing slightly more pro-EU voters compared to other parts of Tory England.
Mr Bercow, who became even more controversial before eventually leaving the House of Commons, managed to hold onto the seat after securing 22,860 votes.
Meanwhile, Mr Stevens saw off Mr Farage’s Eurosceptic crusade, with the pro-EU candidate securing 10,331 votes to the then-Ukip leader’s 8,410.
But Mr Farage’s campaign was overshadowed by disaster after he was pulled bloodied and dazed from the crushed cockpit of a plane which was towing a banner bearing the slogan: “Vote for your country – Vote Ukip.”
The Brexit stalwart, who admitted at the time he was lucky to be alive, went on to deliver what was once considered unthinkable.
Despite Mr Farage suffering his sixth consecutive constituency defeat in Buckingham, with a seventh loss coming in South Thanet in 2015, the now-Reform UK leader managed to force David Cameron to hold a referendum on Europe.
Reflecting on the failure of his Buckingham bid, Mr Stevens said: “I wanted to get a good enough score to persuade David Cameron not to be frightened of Ukip, and not to bow to an anti-European policy shift for the Conservative Party.”
But Mr Stevens’s objective has changed considerably since 2010, with his message on Europe becoming even stronger in Clacton this time around
The 71-year-old told The People’s Channel: “My objective now is to persuade the main parties not to be frightened of Reform and to start addressing the issue that Brexit was, in my view, a grave national mistake that should be reversed, an opinion which polls show is now shared by a clear and growing majority of the electorate.
“If that view can get a decent score in what is the very heart of the pro-Brexit cause, we would be well on the way to starting the process of rejoining the EU.”
The Rejoin EU Party has failed to hold onto its deposit in any of the electoral contests it has fought.
Mr Stevens secured just 129 votes and finished in 10th when Sarah Pochin snatched Runcorn & Helsby from Labour in May 2025.
Support for the Rejoin EU Party collapsed to just 35 votes in Makerfield when Andy Burnham successfully mounted his march to No10, admittedly after making a major Brexit U-turn to placate his Leave-voting constituents.
Despite none of the mainstream candidates taking on Mr Farage, the Reform UK leader is vying for the seat against 33 other candidates.
The record-breaking number of candidates could also pose a problem for the Rejoin EU Party, with Count Binface widely being considered the leading challenger for anti-Reform voters to rally behind.
However, Mr Stevens is hoping a noticeable shift in support for rejoining the EU could help deliver a surge in support in Clacton.
A recent YouGov poll found 55 per cent of Britons would now vote to rejoin the Brussels bloc, with just 34 per cent being in favour of staying out.
Despite around 72 per cent of residents backing Brexit, Mr Stevens said: “Clacton has been strongly hostile to the EU, but in a deeper sense it is one of the most European places in the country, culturally, in its commitment to all our traditions as a nation which derive from the European civilisation which has defined our identity over two millennia and to the greatness of which the British people have contributed, over that long history, so very disproportionally.”
But Brexiteers believe voters would still opt to stay out of the EU after becoming aware of the constitutional requirements needed to rejoin, including adopting the single currency and a membership fee of around £30billion a year.
While Mr Stevens remains focused on Brexit, Mr Farage called the by-election after coming under fire for pocketing a £5million gift from the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.
Despite Mr Farage pitching polling day as the “people versus the establishment”, Mr Stevens argued the Reform UK leader needed to be held accountable for the 2016 Brexit vote.
He added: “Mr Farage’s entire place in our politics rests upon his pre-eminent promotion of one policy: Brexit.
“A policy that has done immense damage to our politics, our economy, our society, and, as I have already said, our culture.
“And again, as I have already said, a policy which now a very large proportion of the British people recognise to have been a serious mistake.
“Nations, like individuals, who do not correct their mistakes are doomed to compound them. I want the people of Clacton to have the opportunity to begin that correction.”
