Sam Journet: ‘The establishment needs to be very embarrassed about what has happened here’
In an interview with GB News, Reform UK’s Mayor of Basildon, Sam Journet, hit back at suggestions Nigel Farage’s vote share in the Clacton by-election was underwhelming, insisting it is “the establishment” that should be embarrassed by the result.
Mr Farage was challenged over why he chose to resign and force a by-election at all, with the suggestion put to Journet that it was an attempt to shore up support among his own voters at a moment when Reform is under pressure, and that he could face “the same spectacle again in a few weeks time” if the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner rules against him or a recall petition follows. Was this, he was asked, simply useful doorstep data for a future fight?
Journet rejected the suggestion outright. “I completely disagree with that and I will refute that,” he said, describing Mr Farage as “a man of integrity” who has “stood up for the people of Great Britain for a long time” and had every right to put his mandate before Clacton voters. He said the result was “resounding”, adding that “the establishment offered Clacton a man dressed as a bin, and the residents of Clacton decided to take out the establishment’s rubbish instead.”
On Count Binface’s vote share
Pressed on whether it was embarrassing for Reform that Count Binface, the satirical candidate campaigning in a bin costume, picked up close to 10,000 votes, and whether the party had hoped for a result closer to 75 per cent given pre-election polling, Journet pointed to the scale of Mr Farage’s gains since 2024.
“We have to be very clear, I think the establishment needs to be very embarrassed about what’s happened here,” he said. Mr Farage took 46.2 per cent of the vote at the 2024 general election; on Thursday, his vote share rose to 63.3 per cent. Count Binface finished second with 9,455 votes, just under 27 per cent, on a turnout of 44.4 per cent from a record 34 candidates on the ballot.
Journet argued that Count Binface’s result, despite what he described as significant financial backing, should be read the other way. “If the establishment and all the millions of pounds they put behind Count Binface produced only 9,000 votes, I think that’s a testament to what the people of Clacton really think about Nigel,” he said. “Kudos to him, he put his mandate on the line and the people of Clacton decided that he should be returned to Parliament as their MP.”
‘People want Reform UK’
Asked whether the real risk to Reform was not Mr Farage’s standing in Clacton, which was “always” going to return him, but the party’s position nationally, given Reform has for the first time in over a year slipped from the top of every opinion poll amid continued questions over the £5 million donation at the centre of the standards investigation, Journet put the recent Labour bounce down to Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation rather than any fall in support for his own party.
“As soon as Keir Starmer was removed from office, or rather he resigned, there was always going to be some form of bounce because people were happy that he was gone,” he said. Journet said that on the doorstep, in both Basildon and Clacton, “people want Nigel, people want Reform UK, because we represent the people”, pointing to the party’s record running Essex County Council as evidence residents were satisfied with its work.
“Opinion polls are opinion polls,” he said, “but last night we saw the real opinion poll. We saw the people of Clacton go to the polls and overwhelmingly put Nigel Farage back into Parliament.”
