What do Clacton voters want from their next MP?

BySimon Dedman

Essex political reporter in Clacton and Walton-on-the-Naze

On Thursday, Clacton goes to the polls for a by-election triggered by the resignation of Nigel Farage. What do voters have on their minds and what do they want from their next MP?

There is more to the Clacton constituency than the town it is named after.

The Essex parliamentary seat includes rural villages, thousands of hectares of farmland and several seaside towns and villages with glistening golden beaches including Jaywick, Frinton and Walton-on-the-Naze.

The forthcoming by-election was triggered by Farage's resignation from Parliament following questions and an investigation into his finances.

The Reform UK leader has denied wrongdoing and said he wanted the people of Clacton to be "the judges of my actions".

Thursday's poll will feature the largest number of candidates and the longest ballot paper in British electoral history.

This will be the sixth time in the last 12 years that voters in this constituency have been asked to choose an MP.

So what issues are they considering before placing their X in the box?

Many of the people who live in Walton and the wider constituency originate from east London. Their cuisine came, too.

Tucking into pie, mash and liquor is the latest family to migrate to the Essex coast. The Parmenters moved from Hornchurch last month.

"What I have seen around me is such friendly people, wherever you go," Pete Parmenter says over lunch in his new community.

The family's experience of corridor care in both Essex and London hospitals is at the forefront of his wife Debbie's mind when politics comes up in conversation.

"We sat there all night waiting to be seen in a corridor and then were moved into a room where we had a chair," she says.

Her son Nick, who is nearly 40, adds: "They just seemed completely overwhelmed, the hospitals. The wait times are huge so I'd rather they focus and spend money on fixing the NHS."

But for Pete, the main issue is one that comes up a lot here: immigration.

"It's not 'kick all the immigrants out', but let's get a little bit more control of it. That's probably a big issue for me and will guide me which way I actually vote when it comes to it."

On the table opposite, Clacton taxi driver Clyde Ellis-Hall agrees.

"I'm just not a left-wing person. I want Britain to be Britain, basically, and I want my kids and grandkids to grow up how I was brought up.

"If you go to all the main cities in the country now – London, Manchester, Birmingham – it's just totally changed."

Glenn White opened White's pie and mash shop in 1981 after moving from London. He turns 80 next year and plans to carry on serving and clearing tables.

White says now is the hardest time he has known for running a small business.

"We still pay VAT at 20% and, as you know, it's a cheap meal in here. Government take over £1 for a meal [in tax]. That's my main gripe, really... struggling against the cost of running the shop."

White says he would like to see politicians cut VAT for hospitality as they did during the Covid pandemic when it was reduced to 5%.

He says cafes and restaurants in Europe often pay lower VAT and thinks the French get a better deal from their government, where restaurants have a lower rate of VAT of 10% on non-alcoholic sales.

"The general worker will pay a much higher tax than an English worker," he says.

"But they get it back in the fact that their communities are nice places to live in. The pavements are all level, there's no potholes, and the government put that money back in.

"So when a French person wakes up in the morning, he walks out into a nice town. He doesn't trip over the paving stones; there's not lots of weeds growing up out the kerbs."

White feels this corner of England that he lives is not as well maintained and says people don't feel like they get back the tax they pay in.

Source: Office for National Statistics

The health and social care sector employs 4,500 people in the Clacton constituency. While the NHS, and access to GPs and dentists has been mentioned by many of the 34 candidates, social care has rarely featured.

"Social care is the biggest economy in the area. It's the most important economy in the area," says Rahul Jagota, who runs The Corner House care home in Clacton and is a former chair of the Essex Care Association.

"We need our leaders to speak about it, speak about the issues, speak about what great work we do, be very positive about it and look at solutions," he says.

"Why it's not on the agenda, I'm not sure, but it's pretty much recognised as we are the driving force of the local industry here."

About 40% of his staff have come from abroad, with rest mainly local. Without foreign recruitment, there would have been staff shortages, he says.

A full list of the candidates standing can be seen here.