[5] The constituency is based on the Essex town of Clacton-on-Sea, located on the North Sea east coast of England.

[10] Nigel Farage had previously been leader of UKIP and the Brexit Party and there had been speculation about what sort of role he would perform in the 2024 general election.

At a news conference on 3 June 2024, Farage announced both his intention to become leader of Reform UK and his candidature for the party in the Clacton constituency.

[13] Immediately prior to Farage's announcement, Reform UK had been predicted to win no MPs in the 2024 election.

[12] Clacton had been won by UKIP's Douglas Carswell in 2014, but was more recently held by the Conservative Party's Giles Watling, who had not been a supporter of Brexit.

Watling was standing for re-election for the Conservatives in the constituency, defending the majority of almost 25,000 he had won at the previous election.

Within days, Mack said he felt "ostracised" and, on 8 June, announced he would stand in the election as an independent candidate.

[14] Labour's candidate was Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, a trade unionist and policy officer for the all-party parliamentary group for reuniting Britain post-Brexit.

[24] On the same day, an undercover Channel 4 journalist secretly recorded members of Farage's campaign team using language described by the BBC as "racist, Islamophobic and homophobic", also suggesting refugees should be used as "target practice".

[27] Regarding other members of his campaign team, Farage stated that the individuals in question had "watched England play football, they were in the pub, they were drunk, it was crass.