As you drive into Clacton there are scores of pro-Farage Reform posters asking people to "save Britain" in what is becoming a struggle for the soul of right-of-centre politics.
Only as you travel out to the more genteel areas of the constituency, like Frinton, do they give way to “I stand with Giles” boards. But Giles Watling, the Tory MP defending his Clacton seat, may be the only Conservative candidate in this election with a wide coalition of support across the country willing him to win.
In the wake of the Channel 4 News expose of the Reform Clacton team and the racist comments by one of the canvassers Andrew Parker, Watling received a telephone call from Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, in normal circumstances no lover of Tories.
“Alastair wanted to know how he can help me stop Farage,” Mr Watling explained to The Independent. “I have had a lot of surprising people like that offering their help from across politics because they know I am the only one who can stop him [Farage] from getting into politics.”
He has even had a video message from Boris Johnson who appeared to be willing to forgive Watling for turning against him over Partygate if it helped stop Farage from winning. It says a lot that two men who detest one another – Campell and Johnson – should unite around Watling.
In contrast, Farage is set to deploy Ann Widdecombe, the former right-wing Tory minister turned Brexit Party MEP and Reform UK supporter, to persuade the locals to back him.
Less than 24 hours after the call from Campbell, Watling was at the Great Bentley show in the constituency where he ran into two young female Labour activists whose candidate, Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, now seems to have unofficially ducked out of the race. “They both told me they are thinking of voting for me. Obviously, I was only too happy to encourage them.”
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