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The only way is Essex
Is Clacton a shore thing for Farage?
The Clacton-on-Sea by-election called by Nigel Farage is being framed as an “Us v Them” battle between “the people” of Clacton and “the Establishment”. This latter word troubles me as the very idea of what the Establishment actually is has changed a lot since the journalist Henry Fairlie first popularised the term in 1955 in the Spectator.
In a new article for the Spectator I have queried whether Farage’s Clacton battle really is against the establishment as defined by Fairlie. In truth the battle lines are really – ten years after Brexit – the same as Farage has always rallied against. The New Progressives – university chancellors, civil service Oxbridge, BBC managers, Garrick member lawyers, Guardian leader writers – who have replaced the old Establishment are almost all Remainers, so calling them establishment types is not realty accurate.
Indeed, as I set out in the Spectator, many of those who would have been termed establishment in the 1950s – seen at White’s club, Royal Ascot and grouse shoots – are the types most likely to support Reform today.
My piece sets out how Farage is a master of using political resignation as an opportunity for reinvention. I recall at a dinner party how he once said that he regards all political setbacks – however egregious (and the Sunday Times’ “Posh George” story cannot have been easy reading over the pancakes in the US where he was last weekend) - as opportunities to reinvent the agenda.
Establishing the agenda
This time he used his resignation to divert attention from Westminster, where he has no real power base, to the heat and dust of the Essex campaign trail where, like Trump with his roadshow rallies, he feels at home. Part of the reason Reform have led over 300 national polls, and are still ahead despite the political and media shelling, is that the party – or at least until donations became an issue – operates on 24-hour campaign mode. The party is most comfortable anywhere but parliament.
That’s why, after he resigned, party members were sent a message: “The establishment is scared. They've now decided they can’t beat us fairly, so are using foul means… They're now smearing me and hounding my daughter. Let me be clear: I have done nothing wrong… Why should they – the people who’ve broken Britain – decide my fate? It is the people of Clacton who gave me a mandate. It is they who should judge my actions.”
But is it really the establishment that Farage is taking on in Clacton, in the same way that Trump went to war with such “liberal elite” media outlet? While many – notably Sir Ed Davey – were quick to reach for the clichés and say that his actions were straight out of the Trump playbook, the reality is that “Farage’s political outlier, Us v Them style of political rhetoric actually far pre-dates Trumpism by decades”.
Justified and ancient
Farage had been defining himself as an anti-establishment outsider since 1992, when he departed from the Tories because of their EU policies and joined the Anti-Federalist League, set up by Alan Sked, which later became Ukip. The moment Farage became Ukip leader, he began setting out his anti-political elite credentials, talking about being the “real voice of opposition”.
Trump has only been an anti-establishment radical since his first rally speech at Trump Tower in New York City on 16 June 2025. He said that American people needed to take power back from the political and financial elite, and then quickly emerged as the “anti-establishment” front-runner with a right-wing populist ideology that propelled him to the White House.
Tribal gatherings
The thrust of my article was to point out that it’s inaccurate to compare Farage’s Clacton battle to Trump's US political elite-bashing as “nobody – let alone the voters of Clacton-on-Sea – really knows what the word ‘establishment’ means anymore”.
Is it being a member of certain St James’s Street clubs and Cotswold weekenders or has it now evolved into an extended-family political tribe that is well educated, public sector-facing, progressive and fervently anti-Brexit?
In Henry Fairlie’s 1955 Spectator piece on the “Establishment”, he looked at the way that real power was exercised, largely over cosy club lunches behind closed doors, in Britain. “By the ‘Establishment’, I do not only mean the centres of official power – though they are certainly part of it – but rather the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is exercised.”
Flush fund
Part of Farage’s appeal is that he is not a stuffy Macmillan style of politician. Nor is he a Tory toff dressed up as a metropolitan liberal, like David Cameron or George Osborne. Over the decade he has realised, partly because of his security needs, that being “classless” isn't enough to be a successful populist. You need funding and personal wealth as well.
Which is why Farage is happy to admit that after being “skint” after Brexit, he now has a £4.7 million property portfolio, not to mention the £5 million “no strings” gift from crypto-billionaire Christoher Harborne. I reminded readers that “outsider” populists need cash, rather than social class and connections, to operate independently and effectively outside the Westminster and Whitehall system. I wrote: “Personal wealth – as well as political party funding – is now a more essential political currency than membership of the Athenaeum.”
More than Trump, Sir James Goldsmith is perhaps a better model of the wealthy “outsider” corporate raider populist who used his money to engage directly with the public. He spent millions sending copies of his anti-EU manifesto video to voters, and in some ways Farage has more in common with Goldsmith. It was Goldsmith – a close ally of my father, Sir Bill Cash, who led the Maastricht Rebellion of 1991 – who boldly first put the idea of a referendum in the public consciousness.
Mirror, mirror…
In my piece I conclude that it is usually a mistake to underestimate Farage. For all his anti-elite zeal, his tastes and lifestyle mark him out as old-school establishment, from his nicely tailored suits, (one-time) Coutts account and Land Rover Defender to regular appearances at Royal Ascot and Cheltenham. I report how, after a lunch was hosted in his honour at White’s, Farage said it was one of the more enjoyable of his life – and he has had a lot of long lunches. There is a side of him that wants to be loved by the very “establishment” he rallies against.
Read my Spectator article, “Is Nigel Farage really an outsider?” here.
Battle fatigue
For all the fighting talk of Clacton taking on the Establishment, the truth is that this old idea of the establishment doesn’t really exist anymore. Quotas, diversity and the progressives’ “march through the institutions” has seen to that. Locals in Clacton today certainly aren’t reading Anthony Sampson’s The Anatomy of Britain, his 1962 book which described the post-war British ruling establishment structure.
Clacton doesn’t care. Which is why, having spent time on the ground in Makerfield where Farage had scores of Reform faithful pounding the streets, it may be wise for the party not to unleash its full volunteer army to canvass for the next by-election.
Farage is already facing up to two investigations by the parliamentary standards commissioner, whose guidelines (clause 39) state: “If Parliament is dissolved or the Member otherwise ceases to be a Member whilst an investigation is in process, the Commissioner will suspend their investigation until the Member is re-elected.”
By-election burnout
As I sensed on the ground in Makerfield, there is a real danger of parties damaging their prospects with a backlash from by-election burnout. Many residents told me how fed up they were with the constant media circus and having their doors knocked on up to three times a day, often by the same party.
I lost count of the number of people who said they were angry with the amount of party leaflets pushed through their letterboxes, and canvassers with clipboards knocking on doors only to ask, “How are you going to vote?”
With by-election build-up stretching over the summer, the “Us vs Them” battle in Clacton may prove exhausting for local residents, especially when they don’t know who the “establishment” is they’re supposed to oppose. My instinct is that Farage will win easily enough in Clacton without chucking in the kitchen sink.
Flint skinned
In an insightful piece this week, Lucy Carrier-Pilkington investigates how PM-in-waiting Andy Burnham is set to promote James Purnell, former chief executive of major lobbying firm Flint Global, to be his chief of staff. The appointment is already raising red flags – not just about Purnell, but Westminster’s opaque lobbying laws.
Analysis by Lucy and others reveal that Flint’s staff met with officials from at least nine government departments on 38 occasions since Labour took office – the 38 figure is likely to fall short of the actual number of meetings that took place, as records of meetings are only published several months after they take place. These meetings comprised breakfasts, lunches, dinners and roundtables, and attendees included cabinet ministers Jonathan Reynolds, Douglas Alexander and Nick Thomas-Symonds. During this period, Flint met ministers and officials from the Department for Business and Trade at least 13 times. The appointment of Purnell was described by one Labour MP as a “very bad sign”.
Flint Global has opted not to reveal its client list in the UK. However, EU transparency disclosures reveal it has lobbied politicians in Brussels on behalf of Microsoft, Apple, BP and Uber. The firm is also known to have advised Thames Water – the utility Burnham has said “should be” nationalised. Other known clients include Jaguar Land Rover and Amazon. The organisation is owned through a holding company based in Jersey, making its structure opaque.
Tech bromance
Purnell, a former Blair-era cabinet minister, is poised to be one of the UK’s most powerful unelected officials. But these findings raise questions about Purnell’s interests. In light of recent tensions between the UK government and tech firms over the social media ban, Purnell’s work representing big tech companies in Europe raises questions about potential conflicts of interest.
This creates a degree of political déjà vu, as Keir Starmer faced similar controversy for appointing Peter Mandelson, who held a significant stake in Global Counsel, a firm that represented social media companies including TikTok
Despite Flint’s regular access to government officials, the organisation’s quarterly entries to the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists have only ever declared lobbying for two clients – the British Standards Institute and tech firm Hellen Systems. There are no suggestions that Flint has broken any rules, as the lack of a record mainly reflects the major flaws in Westminster’s lobbying transparency rules. However, for the public this means there is no available record of clients to indicate whether the decisions that Purnell makes in No 10 could benefit his former business associates.
Nothing to see here
This is because the 2014 Lobbying Act requires consultant lobbyists to register only direct communications with ministers or permanent secretaries made on a client’s behalf – not meetings with advisers, director generals, senior officials nor roundtables or briefings. They also do not have to disclose strategic advice they give to clients about who to speak to in government and what to say. As a result, hugely influential firms like Flint Global can maintain a regular presence across Whitehall without declaring they were lobbying.
Duncan Hames, senior director of policy at Transparency International UK, said: “A lobbying company can have dozens of meetings across government with so little public information about the purpose of these engagements shows how opaque Westminster remains.
“If the next prime minister wants change from the broken politics-as-usual, they should recognise that keeping things behind closed doors and poorly managing conflicts of interest are recipes for disaster.
“Government should create a firewall between any new appointments and their past interests in the private sector, as well as legislating to bring lobbying out of the shadows.”
Following Purnell’s resignation, Flint Global said Purnell “has recused himself from all client activity and has no ongoing financial interest in the company of any kind.” They also said any future conflicts of interest would be appropriately managed.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has also called for the publication of Flint’s clients if Purnell takes up the key role in Downing Street.
Read the article here.
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