Candidate Statements.250 words. No bias.

Clacton deserves a strong, independent voice that will champion our town, our people, and our future. I am standing because I believe we can create a thriving Clacton that works for everyone.  Our High Street must once again become the heart of our community. I will work directly with landlords, businesses, and local organisations to bring empty properties back into use, attract new investment, and create vibrant spaces that encourage people to shop, work and spend time in the town centre.  I want to establish a Cultural Hub where artists, performers, creators and community groups can showcase their talents. Arts and culture have the power to transform communities, boost local pride and create economic opportunities. I will lead efforts to secure Arts Council funding and other grants to support this vision, creating opportunities not only in Clacton but expanding into Walton-on-the-Naze, Jaywick and beyond.  Young people deserve hope, ambition and opportunity. With many local college provisions reduced or closed over recent years, we must do more to connect young people with training, apprenticeships, employers and career pathways. I will work to strengthen engagement with young people and help create opportunities that allow them to build successful futures close to home.  Most importantly, I will be a powerful voice for Clacton. I will listen, act and fight for the investment, services and opportunities our communities need. Together, we can build a stronger local economy, celebrate our creativity, support our young people, and deliver a brighter future for Clacton, Walton, Jaywick and the wider Tendring district.

Attieh Fard is pledging to put local people before party politics and provide residents with an accessible, accountable and visible voice in Westminster. A family lawyer with more than 16 years of professional and community experience, Ms Fard says she is standing because Clacton deserves an MP who will stand up for the rule of law, support local families and businesses, defend British values and focus on the issues that matter most to local people. Running as an independent candidate, Ms Fard has centred her campaign on four core principles: Community. Growth. Security and Freedom. Her priorities include: ● Supporting investment in the local economy, creating better opportunities, improving skills and helping local businesses grow. ● Improving community safety through visible policing, better street lighting and expanded CCTV, while supporting stronger national security and secure borders. ● Standing up for vulnerable residents, families and young people by ensuring they receive the support and resources they need. ● Improving access to NHS services by reducing waiting times, retaining healthcare professionals and promoting efficient public spending. ● Championing investment in local infrastructure, including better transport links, improved mobile connectivity, enhanced shopping facilities and fairer funding for road maintenance across Essex. Throughout her legal career, Fard has worked with vulnerable families, charities, community organisations and small businesses. She has campaigned to protect community assets and green spaces, advocated for childcare support for young families, and contributed legal expertise on issues relating to immigration, national security and protecting British values. Ms Fard says she will be a highly visible constituency MP, holding regular in-person and online surgeries and maintaining close contact with residents.

Michael O’Keeffe will press for an immediate break between electricity prices and the cost of gas-fired power stations. It is the reason why we pay the highest energy costs in Europe. Clacton ranks among the top 1% of economically deprived neighbourhoods in England. I will invite the 120 millionaires, who asked the government to introduce a wealth tax, to support investment in coastal communities as a step towards equity in UK living standards. I will work with government to ensure that local bus companies have to display details of compensation for travellers under the Consumer Rights Act, so that workers can receive compensation for taxi fares when buses are cancelled. I will support reforms to the police service which allow them to spend more time out on the streets. I will promote a national programme for high street renewal, giving young people new opportunities to develop the skills required to work in shops in an age of internet and television sales and marketing. Clacton falls within the top 10% highest areas of SEND density in England. I will call for increased SEND budgets for coastal communities to ensure that vulnerable children get the education that they need. I will work with other coastal constituencies to force the government to rethink policies on mass migration. All migration should be properly costed and planned for, so it doesn’t split communities.

Our political elites must stop pretending. They must stop pretending that mass migration doesn’t erode the social fabric. They must stop pretending that they can under-invest forever, and borrow against future generations. They must stop pretending that you can run a competitive economy with the world’s highest energy prices. And they must stop pretending that Reform will just go away. Nigel Farage has given the establishment a chance to put their case to his constituents. Rather than rise to the challenge, however, the old parties decided to write the people of Clacton off. The establishment is sniggering away at the spectacle of Nigel Farage against a candidate wearing a bin on their head. We know that Farage and Reform are channelling legitimate grievances against a broken political and economic system. But Reform doesn’t have the policies to fix the system. Reform is fine with foreign companies owning our water, power, and rail networks. Reform has no plan to train up our young people. Reform has no idea on how to fix our infrastructure. The SDP is here to provide a real alternative to Reform in this by-election: only we have the policy detail, the willingness to invest in the country, and the backbone to make the trade-offs Britain needs to survive. In this by-election, we’re giving the people real policies to fix the challenges facing Britain – not a sneering rejection of their real concerns.

Independent candidate Tony Francis brings decades of experience across policing, community wardening, construction, church outreach and addiction recovery to his campaign for Clacton.  Tony Francis’s connection with the Clacton coast stretches back almost his entire life.  His mother taught him to swim at Butlin’s in Clacton. He played rugby in the area, returned with his own family and later served communities across the constituency as a police officer and sergeant.  His experience extends well beyond policing.  As a public-sector community warden, Tony worked directly with the complex realities of urban life, including homelessness, insecure housing, ageing, environmental crime and community safety.  The role involved education, investigation and enforcement, alongside close cooperation with voluntary organisations, statutory agencies and private-sector partners.  Tony has also worked in the construction industry, giving him practical experience outside public service and a direct appreciation of the importance of housing, skilled work and projects that produce tangible results.  His Christian faith has led him into years of church and community service across Clacton, Frinton, Walton and Jaywick.  Through church outreach, addiction recovery work and community initiatives, he has worked alongside people who are frequently overlooked or written off.  Tony is now placing particular attention on homelessness in Clacton, meeting people directly and listening to those with first-hand experience of the issue.  Tony believes his varied background has equipped him to understand communities from several perspectives: as a police officer, public servant, construction worker, church member, community organiser and someone experienced in bringing different agencies together.

I am running in the Clacton by-election to provide residents with a serious voice focused on local priorities, public service and responsible leadership. Although this by-election has attracted wide national media attention, I believe the interests and concerns of Clacton’s residents must not be drowned out. This is clearly a unique election, with big names and even bigger characters fighting to win the constituency’s seat, but no election and no vote should be based on noise alone. I am offering something real and tangible to the people of Clacton: the independence to put local priorities first. I want residents to feel heard, represented and taken seriously. If elected, I will be present, available and accountable. The issues I have discussed with local voters include poor access to healthcare, GP appointments, dentists and mental health support; crime and antisocial behaviour; support for young people; action on empty shops and business premises; better roads and infrastructure; properly managed migration; cleaner coastal water and safer beaches that are maintained and cared for. Nationally, Britain needs economic renewal, stronger defence, better international relationships and partnerships, stronger animal welfare standards, better environmental protection, and an education system that gives students more real-world opportunities and life skills, especially as we enter the age of artificial intelligence. If elected, I will take full ownership and responsibility for representing Clacton as its MP. I will fight for practical, tangible changes locally, while facing up to the national issues that need to be addressed across Britain.

Robin Green is a software developer standing as an independent in the Clacton by-election. He’s frustrated that the major political parties chose not to field a candidate against Nigel Farage, and he’s determined to show that there is a serious alternative in this contest who people can get behind.  As a software developer, Robin is one of the only candidates who knows how to defend against job losses and cybersecurity threats stemming from AI. He believes this technology provides a real opportunity to improve the lives of ordinary people in Clacton, but only with sensible regulations in place. Robin will fight for these guardrails in Parliament.  He’s also fed up with the state of the NHS in Clacton, where GP and dentist availability simply isn’t good enough. In two years as Clacton’s MP, Mr Farage never once raised these shortages in Parliament. Robin will do so and work tirelessly to improve access for everyone.  On immigration, Robin understands concerns that Westminster has unfairly ignored for too long. He wants a fair system that controls small boat crossings, prioritises investment in our local services, and welcomes limited skilled workers that our NHS and economy rely on.  Vote for someone who listens. Vote Robin.

Not a career politician. Not corporate-funded. A real alternative for Clacton. I am Martin Davies, Freedom Alliance Party Leader, recently retired after a career with Lloyds Banking Group. I am standing because politics should be about serving people -not advancing careers, rewarding donors or following the party whip. Freedom Alliance believes in positive politics, done by and for ordinary people. We are volunteer-run, member-funded and accept no corporate sponsorship. Our priorities are shaped by the people we represent—not wealthy donors or vested interests. Local power. Local accountability. For Clacton, I would: – Help attract visitors and customers through initiatives such as Totally Locally, support better tax and business-rate structures, and press for local investment and jobs. – Support Town Rangers and Community Wardens to keep streets clean and safe. – Promote Community Councils and give residents a stronger voice. – Celebrate Clacton’s natural beauty and attractions year-round. I would establish a local base, hold regular advice surgeries and remain accessible and accountable to residents. Freedom Alliance stands for freedom of speech, movement, religious expression and, above all, freedom of choice. We oppose compulsory Digital ID systems and believe government should be far more transparent about who influences its decisions and how taxpayers’ money is spent. I spent my career managing teams, solving problems and bringing people together. If elected, I would listen to Clacton residents and work constructively with anyone who has a good idea—wherever it comes from. VOTE MARTIN DAVIES — FOR POSITIVE POLITICS

I will fight to get Clacton a local A&E in Clacton & District Hospital, as the nearest A&E is currently 17 miles away in Colchester Hospital. This is not good enough for our population that has an above average percentage of elderly people. I will fight to get Tendring District Council more funding to address local issues like anti-social behaviour. I will hold weekly advice surgeries and will be a visible MP in general who will truly be seen around and is accessible. Those are my three pledges as a candidate. Clacton deserves better. I am Adham Alkhatip, Leader of the Forward Party that I started, which has over 1,300 members (18th biggest UK party by membership). We offer free membership to any UK voter. I’m running as a candidate in the Clacton by-election because I believe the people of Clacton deserve a serious and credible alternative to represent them and their interests. I have been campaigning in-person, listening to residents’ concerns, leafleting in many areas on my own and with volunteers (e.g. Holland-on-Sea, Clacton Town Square, St Osyth Road, London Road), and have been creating content online to reach a wider audience (utilising my existing online audience of over 195,000 followers). I am dedicated to this by-election, and I am dedicated to serving the people of Clacton.

I did not want to resign as your MP and have this by-election. But the Westminster establishment forced it upon me. Since I was elected in 2024 it has been the greatest privilege of my life to represent you.  Week after week, politicians and the media have worked together to plant negative stories and slurs with the intention of getting me suspended as your MP. Their aim has been to force a by-election, hoping that Clacton would vote against me. So, I have called that by-election now, and am asking you to give me your support to continue this fight. Let’s see if the media lies will win, or the truth.  This vote is about whether ordinary people still have the power to stand up to an establishment that believes it can change the rules whenever it fears losing. This by-election is a contest between the people of Clacton and the entire political establishment. I have met thousands of you already and my promises are simple. I will always be accountable to you. It has been an honour to stand up for Clacton and defend your interests in Parliament. I am taking on Westminster for you. This by-election is our chance to send the political establishment a message that they cannot ignore. And I am fighting to fix broken Britain for you. I have spent 30 years fighting for the British people, our sovereignty and our values. The bigger my vote, the bigger the message we send from Clacton to Westminster.

Clacton deserves a representative who puts people before politics, listens before speaking, and delivers through action rather than empty promises. Too often, local communities are overlooked while national political ambitions take centre stage. It is time for a different approach. My commitment is simple: to listen to local residents, challenge decisions that fail our community, and always stand up for the interests of taxpayers and pensioners. I believe in common sense, honest representation, and practical solutions—not party games or political point-scoring. As an Independent voice, I will ask the difficult questions others avoid, hold decision-makers to account, and ensure the concerns of Clacton are heard loud and clear. Every decision I make will be guided by one principle: putting Clacton first. I am also committed to addressing one of our community’s greatest challenges. Clacton has one of the highest suicide rates in England, and this must not be ignored. I will work tirelessly to champion better mental health support, stronger prevention services, and greater awareness so that everyone has access to hope, compassion, and the help they need.  Together, we can build a stronger, fairer, and more caring Clacton—one where local people always come first.

I have applied to register ESSEX PEOPLE with the Electoral Commission. Our application should be approved in September so ESSEX PEOPLE will be on the ballot if there is a second Clacton by-election.  The purpose of ESSEX PEOPLE is to only represent the interests of the people who live in Essex with zero influence from corporate lobbyists and funders.  I am standing as an Independent. If elected I promise to move to Clacton-on-Sea which will be easy as I rent a flat in Edinburgh. Our policies are listed online. These will be added to and ratified by members on the 1st October.  Over the next three months I plan to register 114 new Local Community Parties for every area of the UK. All to be powered quickly by people locally.   ESSEX PEOPLE is different from all the other options. As your MP I will be bound by our constitution to vote as per instructed by the members of the party from the Clacton constituency on a vote-by-vote basis through an online/app voting system. Clactonians should join. Membership is free.  Everyone is predicting a second by-election probably in December. Over the next three months we plan to employ a dozen Clactonians for 5,000 hours to secure 10,000 signatures for our petition to STOP the Party Whip.  In the 2024 General Election 32,315 Clactonians did not vote. ESSEX PEOPLE can easily win a second by-election especially if 10,000 sign our petition which is on our website.

I have questioned those in authority for decades, fought thousands of cases and helped get significant results. This work can expand in Clacton: listening to constituents, dvising them how best how to fight more effectively for themselves and insisting on results, working with councillors (all parties) and others. United we will be effective: fighting for the people and with the people. • About 3,000 new, well-paid permanent jobs must be created in the next few years • Improved health and social care services are needed • A mass campaign to improve poor housing is called for • I will work with the council and business to revitalise the town centre • Public transport needs to be improved • Improvements in education and training are needed The media call Clacton “deprived”. This is insulting. Clacton has strong communities and a beautiful coastline and surrounding countryside. I was brought up in South Essex and attended secondary modern school in Stanford-Le-Hope. After a series of jobs: labourer, van driver, fitter over six years, I gained a place at Oxford University to read philosophy, politics and economics (without entry qualifications). Thereafter, I worked for the homeless, on prison and criminal policies, ran a Citizen’s Advice Bureau, was a university lecturer teaching disadvantaged adults, a policy adviser on energy and a political adviser to a cabinet minister. I have previously been a parliamentary candidate three times. I have extensive media experience. I have over 18 years’ experience working in parliament. If elected, I will hold my first face-to-face advice surgery at 10am on Friday, August 14 at the Town Hall.

As the native British population falls, so does our voting power. 86% of Africans and 79% of Asians vote for left-wing parties. In places like Tower Hamlets and Burnley, we have seen the rise of “Muslim First” parties that put their own communities first.  They vote in the interests of their communities, which are often in conflict with our own. If their poor decisions at the ballot box destroy Britain, they have a homeland to flee to. We do not.  Our policy is Remigration. We will reverse demographic change and keep native Britons as the largest democratic force in Britain.  We would:  • End Indefinite Leave to Remain.  • Remove voting rights from immigrants.  • Give no benefits to migrants.  • Make migrants pay for NHS treatment.  • Deport illegal migrants, foreign criminals, subversives, and net tax burdens, including non-native people born here if they meet these conditions.  • Remove citizenship from immigrants.  • End laws and programmes that only benefit non-native groups.  • Offer payments for voluntary departure, with checks to stop repeat claims.  We will give every reason to leave and remove every reason to come. Our economic policy for Clacton is to:  • Campaign for direct weekend tourist trains to seaside towns.  • Make Clacton a Coastal Tourism Investment Zone, removing VAT, business rates and alcohol duty from hotels, attractions, pubs and restaurants, as done in Greece and Spain.  • Encourage schools to visit historic seaside towns instead of Mosques.  • Join the Coastal Communities MP group and work with MPs from every party to put Clacton before politics.

Dr Derrick Norbert Morris brings a wealth of experience to these elections. He was President Obama’s main adviser, assisted Trump with his COVID-19 reopening strategy and PM Liz Truss’s low-interest rate policy move. Hence, he unleashes his experience to make Clacton a new and greater town.   If elected, I will move to the constituency, I will only draw half of the £100,000 MP salary,  I will immediately set up a face-to-face MP’s advice surgery, I will set up a constituency office with highly skilled staff, I will hold monthly All-Constituent Meetings, I will publish quarterly reports including anonymised casework, enquiries will be acknowledged within 7 days, I will set up specific groups (e.g. young people, older citizens) to promote specific interest.  There is a need to ramp-up constituency engagement, addressing frustrations over local issues, such as health care, housing and deprivation. This will be my first and last priority. Westminster and Whitehall are jungles. It is easy for an MP to get lost and be ineffective. Remember “Yes Minister” the TV comedy? But there are good people everywhere. Parliamentary Questions are very efficient campaigning tools. “Never be frightened to ask a question.”   Persistence is the key. A huge range of questions need to be asked: Why has automatic screening for breast cancer for women over 70 been stopped? Do these women not matter? Why do the pavements as well as the roads in Jaywick have numerous potholes? Do the residents not matter? Why are thousands locally waiting for NHS treatment? Why do millions live in poverty, with poor housing, resulting in millions of children growing up in poverty with poor educational and career opportunities? We are entitled to contribute to the big issues: climate change, regulation of the Internet and AI, world poverty, war and peace.  The power of an MP is the power to speak out for their constituents. The Parliamentary Question is a powerful tool to get attention of the authorities and demand action. A good MP must also listen.

I’m the good Nigel. Woke means more money in your pocket rather than in corporation coffers; it means better regulation and lower prices; it means saved climate and nature; we don’t need to raise taxes on Clacton people to make capitalism work better. I still love good companies. Mr Farage’s Brexit cost the UK much more than £750 billion in lost GDP, including £250 billion in lost government revenue (see Goldman Sachs study etc) Mr Farage wants employers to be able to pay women less than men because he want to abolish/downplay equality law. That’s unfair. I will: push to tax and regulate business properly; make competition work better for Clacton people; stop warmongers. Free markets can work for humans. I’m independent of parties, so I’m with Clacton. That is: I will push to end rip-off Britain and to curb nature destruction in the interests of Clacton people.  More buses, cleaner transport, high-tech jobs because of proximity to London; more tough market fairness to end scams; improved public health. Better pavements for wheelchairs, fewer potholes.  I want to end the Trump/Farage/Labour/Tory politics that pretends to be for the people but is actually for the establishment and it’s right now focused on money instead of real, normal humans. I’m a country boy and reporter/whistleblower exposing bad companies, markets and governments during the past few decades.

1. This election is real. The people of Clacton should not be treated as a joke by a dustbin.  2. This election offers the people of Clacton the opportunity to express a view on one of the central issues of our politics: whether it is right to stay out of the EU.  3. Rejoining the EU would do more for the UK economy than any other single measure proposed by any of the parties.  4. It would put us back on a stable path to growth and allow international markets to strengthen sterling and reduce our interest rates.   5. Even with higher growth and lower inflation, our national debt is far too high. The biggest issue in this is the enormous burden on the NHS from an inadequately structured care system. Clacton should be a centre of national excellence and the focus of the creation of such a service.  6. Britain needs to continue to introduce renewable energy. Clacton should benefit from the wind farms off Clacton’s shore.  7. Young people should have the opportunity to work and train in hospitality industry across Europe. Then they can raise the standard of the whole British sector, which is so critical to Clacton and Frinton’s local economy.  8. Clacton could be a really great place for young families to bring up children and have a high quality of life. Poor communications, especially poor internet and slow trains, limit its potential.   9. We need to reunite with the rest of our continent to guarantee freedom and prosperity.   10 We need to assert our European identity against its erosion by non-European forces.

I am standing in the Clacton by-election because local people deserve an MP who will focus on Clacton, not party politics, Westminster careers or political theatre.  I am a hard-working father of five, a business owner and the founder of Mobility UK.   I felt compelled to stand because I want to offer a serious alternative to the Reform and Count Binface.  It feels like this by-election is being treated like a circus but it is a serious issue for local people.  I am fully independent. No political party will control my vote, and I have no party officials or wealthy political backers to answer to. My responsibility will be to the people of Clacton.  Unlike some of the other 33 candidates, I have close family connections to Clacton. Most of my family have lived in the area for around 20 years, members of my family run a local small business, and my nieces and nephews attend local schools. I understand many of the pressures people face because I face them too.   My priorities include:  • Better access to GPs, physiotherapy, wheelchairs and disability equipment  • Improved care, transport and community support for elderly and disabled people  • More apprenticeships, skills training and opportunities for young people  • Social housing that gives proper priority to people with genuine local connections  • Better public transport across Clacton and the surrounding communities  • Support for local businesses and regeneration of the town  • Properly controlled immigration and stronger action against illegal working  • Tougher consequences for violent, persistent and repeat offenders  • Better drug rehabilitation, mental health services and support for victims of domestic abuse

Dear Clacton Voter, If someone had told me just four weeks ago that I would be standing as an Independent candidate in this by-election, I would have laughed and said they must be from another planet. But when I saw someone wearing a bin on their head presented as the only serious challenger to Mr Farage, while the major political parties did not even bother to stand a candidate, I realised something had gone badly wrong. Politics is not a joke. And the people of Clacton are certainly not a joke to be ignored by the political establishment. I am writing to tell you that I am a serious candidate—someone who believes politics should work for the people, not the other way around. For too long, the political establishment has acted as though we exist to serve them, instead of them serving us. I say to the people of Clacton: if you elect me as your MP on 13 August, that approach ends. Every decision I make will begin with one simple question: “Is this right for Clacton?” Some have tried to frame this by-election as a contest between the establishment and the anti-establishment. My perspective comes from real life, not political labels. I grew up in institutional care between the ages of five and sixteen. I know what it feels like to believe your voice does not matter and that no one in power is listening. Today, there is still no MP in the House of Commons with lived experience of growing up in care. If you elect me as your MP, I will fight every day to: – Put Clacton first. – Build a strong local-first economy. – Give young people hope and opportunity. – Restore pride in Clacton. This campaign is not about political parties. It is about the people who live here