Farage is a whiny winner – and that’s not attractive to voters

As expected Nigel Farage has won his by-election in Clacton. In fact, from some perspectives this was a resounding success for his gamble as he increased his vote by around 1,000 and won a larger percentage of the vote.

This is absolutely how Reform UK will try to spin this everywhere they bother to turn up. Farage himself did not attend the count to claim victory. And while the party first tried to spin this as a security issue, Essex Police said they had not advised any candidate to stay away from the count. Farage later changed his tune saying he would be “demeaned and humiliated by nobodies.”

But it is not the whole story and nor should anyone let it be. A comedian with a bin on his head pretending to be from space won 27% of the vote. That’s not nothing, and the people of Clacton who voted for him – who will be represented by Farage – are not nobodies.

Many of us live in constituencies or wards where we are not represented by the person we voted for at an election. And everyone who does deserves to know that their elected representative will treat them the same as those who did vote for them when it comes to helping with casework and constituency issues.

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Reform UK has not had a good summer. They continue to decline in the polls and they remain dogged by their dodgy financial arrangements. Meanwhile their Home Affairs spokesperson has spent August calling Ben Wallace – former soldier and defence secretary – a ‘traitor’ and has not deleted the post despite Farage saying he would give him a “ticking off”. Yusuf followed this up with a post saying he would send the Directors of Vodafone to jail.

This is not the behaviour of a party that is happy and confident in its current position no matter how many of their spinners brief credulous journalists that they are. The thing about being an ‘insurgent’ party is that you have to maintain the momentum. There is nothing more threatening to their position than being seen to stall, to sputter out.

There are ways of dealing with such a position. But these do not include being whiny. It may feel to them like they are speaking to the complaints of those they represent. But the people attracted to Farage tended to like his ‘happy warrior’ pose. But it has been quite some time since the word ‘bonhomie’ could be applied to Nigel. Reform voters want answers on immigration, crime and the economy. They may not want the answers I would like, but that is what they are seeking. They don’t want ‘poor me’ moaning about how hard it is to be a well paid and powerful politician. They don’t want their party picking fights with Essex Police.

The sharp-eyed among you might have spotted the reference above to a song from the satirical film ‘Bob Roberts.’ The film from 1992 is a frighteningly prophetic vision of right wing populism. But the reason I reference the song is because one of the strongest weapons in the right wing arsenal has been that the left complain too much; are too po-faced, too willing to point at all that is wrong with the world.

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There is of course a lot wrong with the world as we find it. And part of the job of progressives down the ages has always been to identify these problems and be honest about them. But sometimes we have fallen head first into the trap of doomerism. And that has never won us either plaudits or votes. And it is the latter that is needed to allow us to offer the solutions and change the narrative. As Andy Burnham has changed the tone of Labour’s government into one more focused on optimism and hope so too has the narrative about Labour changed. This is not a coincidence.

None of the questions that existed about the party before the election have been answered by this result. None of these questions will go away however much Farage hides from scrutiny. He may be back as an MP, but don’t count on him spending much time in Parliament doing his actual job. The question for Reform now is: can they face the kind of scrutiny that thin skinned populists usually shun? Can they do hope in harder times?

So far they are showing little sign of it. If they continue to be the party of complainers and moaners, they might continue to appeal to their grievance base, but they will not be attractive to the voters they need to turn around their declining fortunes.

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