The Rejoin EU party loses its deposit again

The Clacton by election was an ideal opportunity for the Rejoin EU party. The main pro EU parties, Lib Dem, Greens and Labour had stood aside. The former MP incumbent  candidate was Nigel Farage with a lifetime of being anti EU. Surely this would show that even in relatively Eurosceptic Essex there was a serious minority of support for rejoining the EU, which could then sustain the often quoted argument of the pro EU forces that a majority of the UK would now like to be back in.

Instead the Rejoin EU party polled under 1.5% of the vote. Their candidate  John Stevens, an experienced politician and a former MEP, failed to get any cut through with the electors and as a result was ignored by the media. The media rightly worked out the only challenger to Mr Farage likely to get  serious support  was Count Binface, who as a result dominated the non Farage coverage. This demonstrates that the alleged wish of many to see the UK back in the EU is not true. If it cannot convert to being  the leading minority vote in a relatively Eurosceptic part of the country, it cannot be the view of anything like a majority of the UK electorate. Those who wanted back into the EU had nothing to lose by voting for Mr  Stevens, as the by election was never going to change the government or make any significant difference to the Commons. A strong vote for Mr Stevens would however have sent a message and would have been greatly used by those who do want us to surrender more powers and align with more EU government.

That is why those of us who think EU Re set and closer alignment will bring us less growth, higher taxes and more bad laws need to remind people that even in the free vote conditions of this bizarre by election the pro EU party got little over 1%, whilst the winner who wants us to stay out got 62.8%. Count Binface campaigned on being in Clacton more than Mr Farage and in favour of cheap ice creams. He promised to build one subsidised home and offered to cut any individual voter’s tax whilst putting it up for the rest. This was preferred by those who did like Mr Farage to the serious – and wrong – proposal that we should re set our relationship with the EU and seek membership put forward by Mr Stevens. Doesn’t that say it all?