Giles Watling is now certain to win back Clacton for the Tories – that’s the verdict of the candidate chosen by local UKIP members to try to defend the seat!
Jeff Bray was speaking after he was dropped as candidate in favour of a member of UKIP’s National Executive Committee, Paul Oakley who told local members he had once spent a holiday in Clacton when he was 10 years old.
Mr Bray has now resigned from the party and will sit as an Independent on Tendring District Council. He had been offered financial support to stand as an independent in the general election – but felt there was no point in wasting his supporters’ money.
He said: “I’m very angry and upset by this. I had the support of the local people and the national party have ignored this and chosen one of their own who told the meeting that all he knew about Clacton was that he had spent a holiday here when he was 10.
“The party has absolutely no chance of holding the seat (which was won by Douglas Carswell for UKIP in 2014 and 2015). I reckon Giles should buy me a drink after this!”
He pointed out that he had won the largest UKIP vote in Essex in last week’s county council elections – even though he had failed to be elected.
There had been speculation that millionaire Aaron Banks, a prominent UKIP backer, would stand for the party – but he pulled out because there was a “strong local candidate”.
In the wake of last week’s county elections which saw no UKIP candidates elected anywhere in East Anglia, it was clear that the seat would be challenging for whoever stood.
Mr Bray said: “The only hope was a local candidate who knows the area. Now they’ve turned their back on that. I’m not having anything to do with them any more.”
Mr Oakley was a UKIP candidate for London in the elections to the European Parliament in 2014.
We are still awaiting a response from UKIP head office.
The Clacton Liberal Democrats have re-selected David Grace to be their candidate for the General Election. Mr Grace, a charity administrator, fought the seat in the 2015 General Election. The full list of candidates will be confirmed on Thursday afternoon. Natasha Osben will fight for Labour, Chris Southall for the Greens and Caroline Shearer as an Independent.
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