If the Clacton win is so great, why are Reform MPs so angry?
Nigel Farage begins his return as an MP to Clacton with a lie about the police, while Reform MPs get angry speaking to TV journalists. Is this an indicator of where the party is taking its politics?
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What’s the story?
Nigel Farage started his return to the House of Commons as the MP for Clacton with a bit of a lie.
The Reform UK leader, who won 22,239 with votes to beat Count Binface on 9,455, told supporters he would not be attending the vote-count in Clacton on the night of 13 August. He claimed he had been warned by Essex police of an "organised campaign" to disrupt the count, and would be staying away.
Essex Police has denied making any such warning to any candidate in the by-election.
"Essex police did not say, as Farage indicated, that he shouldn't turn up. Essex police did not say that," says Lewis Goodall, adding that Reform sources have insisted it did.
"Listening to him at that event, he was like a circus master who was furious with his own clowns.
“He was furious with the process and inevitable outcome of the process he himself had instigated."
The by-election was contested by 34 candidates. Other than Farage, all others were fringe independents and joke entrants. No major party stood a candidate.
"I'm sure that probably one of them would have tried to make a scene, but the key to that would have been Farage actually dealing with it at that moment, and doing so in a way that actually spoke well of him," Lewis adds.
"The problem in not turning up is he looks angry at the very democratic process that was needless but he himself instigated."
In his speech to supporters, where Farage spent the night celebrating, he attempted to invoke wartime spirit, claiming that the so-called threat represented what the UK had lost since World War II.
"He was talking about forces of darkness and tyranny – they were joke candidates," says Jon Sopel.
"I am convinced that the reason that Nigel Farage did not appear on that stage last night was that the circus of his own creation was going to rebound on him, and it would just be ridiculous.
'He decided to stay away, so they cooked up a story that Essex police have said there's a threat.
“Party spokespeople have been rowing back on that or trying to redefine what they thought was a threat ever since."
The morning after Farage's win, both Richard Tice and Lee Anderson gave tetchy, hostile interviews to the media about the Clacton result.
Why were Reform MPs so angry?
Speaking to LBC, Boston and Skegness MP Richard Tice repeated the "credible threat" line, while angrily claiming that Farage's security team was more trustworthy than the police.
Lee Anderson echoed the same sentiment to the BBC, saying he believes what Farage told his supporters on the night of the election, rather than Essex Police's formal denials.
So if Farage's Clacton win over a bin was as "magnificent" as they claim, why are the Reform lads so tetchy?
Could it be anything to do with the continual polling decline, or maybe that the Parliamentary Standards inquiry into an undeclared £5m gift was immediately re-opened after the Clacton result was announced?
"The last six months for Reform, and the last 24 hours, has been a perfect embodiment of the retreat to the party's comfort zone," says Lewis.
When Reform was leading opinion polls – leaving mainstream parties trailing in the teens while they surged over 30% of voter intention – he says its MPs made an effort not to seem "eccentric" or "indulge their fringe ideas".
But now they're back playing the greatest hits.
"We have seen Reform going way back to its more base political instincts, primarily affecting a constant politics of aggression and sense of grievance," Lewis adds.
"That is what you're seeing this morning, this time the target being Essex police. It's the idea that everybody is always out to get them."
"This should be a sunny day for Reform – but this tone augurs badly for them in the politics to come."
Does Reform know it’s done?
If the 22,000 people of Clacton think Farage's priority now will be serving their needs and their town, they might be in for a disappointment.
Farage called the by-election in early July 2027. Stepping down as an MP meant the inquiry into his finances was paused – but only while he was not in the House of Commons. He is now back under that same spotlight of scrutiny.
Jon says his by-election win, in the safest seat possible for a hard-right politician, will only subject him to more questioning, not less.
"The questions about the way Reform has raised money has cut through to people," he says.
"The Clacton win doesn't make these financial questions go away."
The £5m gift, Lewis adds, doesn't just highlight the holes in Farage's finances, but his entire political premise, that he (after a political career of more than 30 years, leading three different parties and serving as an MEP) is somehow "anti-establishment".
Farage has claimed that, in the Clacton by-election, the man with the bin on his head was the "establishment candidate".
"The £5m undermines his central premise, which is the anti-establishment thing," Lewis says.
"In focus groups and polling people are starting to ask if maybe he's just like all of the rest of them, that he's drowning in money, and he also has his snout in the trough."