2014 Clacton by-election

The Clacton by-election, 2014 is due to be held on 9 October 2014 for the Westminster constituency of Clacton in Essex. On 28 August 2014 the Conservative MP for Clacton, Douglas Carswell, announced that he was defecting to the UK Independence Party, was resigning from Parliament and that he would stand for the seat as the UKIP candidate in a by-election.

On 4 September 2014, the Conservative Party announced that an open primary is to be held in Clacton on Thursday 11 September 2014, when a Tory candidate to take on UKIP defector Douglas Carswell will be selected.

Background

Douglas Carswell, a Eurosceptic backbencher, said he did not think Prime Minister David Cameron was "serious about the change we need", adding that "many of those at the top of the Conservative Party are simply not on our side":

Of course they talk the talk before elections. They say what they feel they must say to get our support when they want our support, but on so many issues – on modernising our politics, on the recall of MPs, on controlling our borders on less government, on bank reform, on cutting public debt, on an EU referendum – they never actually make it happen.

Carswell also stated that local issues regarding planning and overcrowding of GP surgeries were a factor in his decision to resign.

Responding to the news that Carswell had defected and would trigger a by-election, David Cameron said the contest will be held "as soon as possible". He also confirmed that the Conservatives would contest the by-election. It was later announced that the by-election would be held on 9 October, which is Mr Cameron's 48th birthday.

Conservative Reaction

On 29 August 2014, The Daily Telegraph's Peter Oborne wrote that "David Cameron should go down on his knees and beg Mayor of London Boris Johnson to stand as the Conservative Party's candidate for Clacton in the coming by-election." The bookmaker Ladbrokes offered odds of 33/1 that Johnson would stand in Clacton. Johnson had previously indicated that he would apply to stand in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency at the general election. Conservative backbencher Nigel Evans suggested that possibly the Conservatives should not stand in Clacton. Zac Goldsmith MP described Carswell as a "model parliamentarian" and remarked that "I hope he is an MP after 2015". Lord Tebbit said he would refuse to campaign against Carswell, claiming that the "House of Commons needs men like Douglas Carswell".

Candidates

Carswell announced that he would stand again for the seat as UKIP's candidate. However, UKIP's recently selected general election candidate for Clacton, Roger Lord, has said he will not stand down in favour of Carswell and local activists have said that the local party may not be willing to adopt Carswell as the candidate. In addition, Lord hinted to Sky News that he was willing to defect to the Conservatives having described Carswell as 'stupid' and 'gutless'. Anne Poonian, the secretary of the Clacton UKIP association, was quoted as saying:

Carswell's taking a very big risk for getting in for a little party. We may not adopt him as our candidate, who knows? He has to be adopted by us, the local association. At the moment he’s just an unemployed MP. Who knows whether he’ll be adopted? However, UKIP have said that different rules apply to the selection of a candidate at a by-election and that Carswell has been formally and correctly chosen as the candidate.

Colchester Borough Councillor Tim Young had been announced prior to Carswell's resignation as the Labour Party candidate and was later confirmed as their by-election candidate.

£100,000 by-election

Here is how the East Anglian Daily Times broke the news on 2 September 2014:

Mr Carswell, who took his party by surprise last week, announcing he was forcing a by-election after joining the UK Independence Party, has been out on the campaign trail since Friday.

His new leader Nigel Farage said:

"On 9th October UKIP, Douglas and I hope to give David Cameron the one birthday present he doesn’t want, a UKIP MP elected to Westminster. Between now and then UKIP will be working hard every day to ensure Douglas is elected."

Labour also claimed it was 'off to a flying start', after revealing its candidate Tim Young on Monday:

"We are ready. Our office is up and running, we have started door-knocking, and we were probably more prepared because we had a candidate in place unlike some of the other parties," Tim Young said.

The Conservatives are yet to announce who they will choose to fight the seat, but it emerged last night that the selection process could be an open primary. In what will be seen as a deliberate attempt to highlight the fact that Mr Carswell was parachuted in ahead of existing candidate Roger Lord, the Tories look poised to use what is seen as a more democratic method of selecting the party member who will fight for the seat.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson yesterday dismissed speculation that he would fight Mr Carswell in Essex, and asked by the BBC yesterday whether Mr Cameron had asked him to stand in Clacton, Mr Johnson said there had been 'no serious approach', adding:

"I don’t think people think it would be the right thing for me to do, given that I’ve gone in for Uxbridge."

Simon Martin-Redman, chairman of the Clacton Conservative Association, who has been tipped as the Tories' potential candidate, would not confirm or deny reports that he would fight the seat, claiming the selection had not been made, and it was not his decision. Mr Martin-Redman said:

"I think it is important we have local knowledge, someone who understands the disparity within the constituency and understands the needs of the people apart from Frinton and Walton. If you were coming in from outside, unless you knew, it would be difficult to pick up very quickly." Admitting the party had been 'caught out' last Thursday, when Mr Carswell made the shock announcement, Mr Martin-Redman said that the party would to things 'properly':

"I would rather we did that and took an extra day or two so that the local electorate will have a choice. The date has been set and it is all hands to the pump and get on with it. Just because we have not had a candidate announced does not mean we have not started to fight this election," he added.

Dismissing polls, which have put the Mr Carswell and UKIP on course for a victory, Mr Martin-Redman said:

"The poll at the weekend is ludicrous – from what we are getting on the streets it is neck and neck."

The Liberal Democrats are yet to choose their candidate, while Terry Allen, who stood for Tendring First in Clacton in the 2005 General Election, confirmed no-one from the party would be fighting the by-election in 37 days time. Frinton town councillor Terry Allen said:

"We are objecting to it anyway because it will cost £100,000 and in eight months’ time it has all got to be done again. This is a fight between Mr Carswell and the Conservatives, so let the national parties fight it out, we won’t be. If the circumstances were different we may consider it, but we don’t want to get involved in this."