LABOUR activists in Clacton fear that the party is throwing the election in their constituency in order to facilitate the return of Nigel Farage to Parliament.
They claim that their imposed candidate, Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, has been told to campaign elsewhere in the country rather than in the town he seeks to represent.
One Clacton Labour campaigner, speaking anonymously for fear of party reprisals, told the Star: “Labour want Farage to win here because he could split the Tories.
“A resurgent Reform party could create turmoil for the Tories in the Commons.”
The Tory-held seat could be winnable for Labour as Mr Farage’s hard-right Reform party looks to split the right-wing vote in the Essex seaside town down the middle.
But Labour is allegedly playing a cynical game. Mr Owusu-Nepaul, a party employee imposed on the local party as their candidate without a vote, has been instructed to first of all campaign in nearby Colchester rather than Clacton.
Now he has allegedly been told to go and work in the Black Country, nearly 200 miles away.
Local Labour sources said they had hoped that Mr Farage imposing himself as Reform’s Clacton candidate would lead to a powerful local mobilisation to prevent his election.
Instead they believe Labour campaign bosses would rather anticipate the disruption he could cause in Parliament, sitting alongside Tory MPs, many of whom agree with him on most issues.
Certainly the Conservatives look like entering a bitter internal struggle in opposition after July 4, with many wanting to move sharply to the right and unite with Reform.
A Reform campaign volunteer in the town told the Star that the party was on course for victory, although when pressed merely claimed that canvas returns were “OK.”
Mr Farage himself is only appearing in Clacton from time to time, instead travelling around the country trailed by a mass media always ready to promote his views.
Tory incumbent Giles Watling is trying to exploit the Reform owner’s call for a ceasefire in Ukraine to claw back votes, but the local electorate seems entirely indifferent to the conflict in eastern Europe.
Labour held Clacton from 1997 to 2005, so a win would not be out of the question if the party wished to achieve it.
