Clacton Labour tells candidate to campaign elsewhere

Labour has been accused of "not putting up a fight" against Nigel Farage in Clacton after the party's candidate was instructed to leave the constituency after "distracting" from Keir Starmer's campaign.

- Aletha Adu

Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, 27, who works for Labour's equalities team, was installed by the party last month to contest the seat, weeks before Farage decided to stand for Reform UK in the Essex constituency.

Owusu-Nepaul has since been "seconded" to the West Midlands, while the local campaign in Clacton said it had been banned from printing leaflets and blocked from using campaigning software, and had had access to the campaign's social media overridden, leading to posts being deleted on X.

Labour regards Clacton as an unwinnable seat. The party gained 16% of the vote in 2019, when the Tories won a 24,702 majority.

Members of Clacton's constituency Labour party (CLP) had been expecting a "well planned but low energy" social media campaign.