Laurence Fox has suffered another election embarrassment after winning just 1% of the vote in the Clacton by-election.
With Nigel Farage and his main rival Count Binface attracting most of the headlines and attention in the Clacton by-election, you’d be forgiven for missing some other interesting results from Clacton.
A record 34 candidates stood in the by-election, and whilst Farage and Count Binface claimed over 90% of the vote between them, there were fights for places and deposits below.
One of the other candidates to stand was washed-up actor Laurence Fox representing the far-right Reclaim Party.
Given the huge right-wing support in Clacton, and the decision from Restore Britain not to stand, Fox might have been hoping to hoover up a fair few votes from bigots and racists who might otherwise have voted for Rupert Lowe’s party.
But in the end, it was another humiliation for Fox.
He won just 437 votes, 0.99% of the total turnout, falling well short of the 5% required to reclaim his deposit.
Perhaps most embarrassingly for Fox though, he was bested by Rejoin EU candidate John Stevens, who came in third with 492 votes.
READ NEXT: Tommy Robinson and Laurence Fox destroyed in Oxford Union debate against Muslim student
This is the fourth time Fox has lost his deposit in an election.
The previous occasions were:
- 2021 London mayoral election – Fox finished in sixth place with 47,634 votes (1.9%) losing his £10,000 election deposit.
- 2023 Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election – Fox finished fourth with 2.3% of the vote, losing his deposit.
- 2024 London Assembly election – Fox was a candidate on the London-wide list for election, received 13,795 votes (0.56%) and was not elected, losing his £5,000 deposit (he had also attempted to stand in the 2024 London mayoral election but failed to fill in nomination forms correctly).