Essex police said there were no “incidents or issues” regarding the Clacton byelection on Thursday or overnight, and the decision of whether candidates attend the election count is “for individuals and their security teams”.
Nigel Farage said he would not attend the official declaration of the result at Clacton Leisure Centre as Essex police had told him about an “organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result”.
A Reform UK spokesperson later said: “Essex police advised Nigel not to attend the count tonight due to a credible threat against him.”
However, a spokesperson for the force said:
double quotation markWe have a full and robust policing operation in place around the Clacton byelection, as we do with all significant elections in our county.
Throughout polling day our officers were visible right across Clacton and the Tendring district. We visited all 51 polling stations, our officers were out and visible on foot, in vehicles and our drone team patrolled by air.
Our aim was to ensure the people of Clacton were able to go about their daily business, that people were able to cast their vote safely and that the count took place without issue.
double quotation markWe are pleased to say all of these things happened and there were no incidents or issues throughout yesterday and into the early hours of this morning. We worked closely with Tendring District Council and their security teams throughout. We take the safety and security of our elected officials extremely seriously and, equally, we take our policing responsibilities around the democratic process seriously too.
The decision of candidates to attend or not attend the election count is a decision for individuals and their security teams, our role is to make sure our policing operation is sufficiently robust to ensure the safety of all, and we are grateful to all of our officers, staff and the staff at Tendring District Council who worked through the night to ensure the safety of all.
