‘It’s no joke!’ Clacton voters can put reversing Brexit back on the table, says ex-MEP running against Farage

A former member of the European Parliament (APME) running against Nigel Farage has claimed the Clacton by-election is a chance to “put Brexit back on the political agenda” and force mainstream parties to consider rejoining the EU.

John Stevens, who represents the Rejoin EU Party in the Clacton by-election, warned voters in his Essex constituency were unhappy with the media portraying the byelection as a frivolous contest between Mr Farage and comedian candidate Count Binface.

“From the perspective of people in Clacton, this is not an election joke,” he says Independent. I can tell you that the Binface saga will go down like a lead balloon. “People think they are the butt of a joke from inside Westminster.”

Instead, he argues that although Clacton was one of Leave’s strongest constituencies a decade ago, voters in the constituency, particularly young people and women, are much more open to the idea of ​​rejoining the EU.

But he warned that Nigel Farage wanted “95 per cent or more support at the North Korean level” in the by-election in which the main parties refused to take part.

Mr Stevens, who was a Conservative MP for a decade until 1999, said: Independent: “On a national level, people need to understand that this isn’t Binface versus Farage. This is an opportunity to hit Farage where it really hurts.

“If he gets a significant anti-Brexit vote… that would do him and the Reform cause far more damage than being humiliated with a dustbin.”

However, with Clacton voting 70 per cent to Leave in 2016 and Essex 62 per cent overall, he admitted: “It might not work, but it’s an opportunity and for me it’s worth the risk because it might encourage the pro-European side.”

Mr Stevens added: “It’s one thing to have a by-election in Makerfield to make someone prime minister, but it’s another to get us back into the EU. If I can be successful here, I hope the main parties will be emboldened to put rejoining on the table.”

He insisted his message would be heard in Clacton as he knocked on doors.

“Many people say ‘no, Brexit didn’t work’ or ‘I was against it’, especially more women than men,” Mr Stevens says.

“In these new estates, young people with families are questioning Brexit and I say: ‘This is your chance to have a completely clean fight to express your opinion on something that no one is talking about, not even Nigel Farage wants to talk about Brexit.’”

Mr Burnham said he supported rejoining last September but later recanted when he took the pro-Leave seat of Makerfield.

But Mr Stevens believes: “Labor backbenchers are all in favor of rejoining the EU.”

The candidate, who, like Mr Farage, is a former City trader, believes the answer to reversing Brexit is for former Remainers like himself to admit they made mistakes a decade ago and not just blame Leave voters.

“I believe very strongly that we should not have a conflict between Leavers and Remainers. It is important for Remainers to say, and I actually fully believe that, that we have as much a role as the Leavers in getting the Brexit result in 2016.”

“So it’s about not saying ‘you were wrong, you know we were right and we were right.’

“It has to be a lot more. It has to be different. It has to be a lot more accommodating. It just has to be, ‘We all made a mistake and we’re all going to fix it together.'”

This is not her first encounter with Mr Farage. In 2010 she stood against former Speaker John Bercow in his Buckingham constituency, where she came second, beating Mr Farage by more than 10,000 votes.