Why I’m standing against Nigel Farage as a fox

Nigel Farage wants you to believe this by-election is about him against the establishment. It isn’t. When it comes to animals, Farage is the establishment. He always has been. That’s exactly why I couldn’t sit this one out.

I’m standing in Clacton dressed as a fox. Not for a laugh, although I’ll take the laugh. I’m standing because Farage has spent years defending hunting and shooting, and he’s about to spend a few weeks telling the country he’s some kind of outsider fighting the system. Someone needs to point out the obvious. On animals, he’s never been anything but the system.

The “people vs the establishment” line doesn’t survive contact with his record

Farage called this election himself, on his own terms, framing it as ordinary people against a corrupt political class. Fine. Let’s test that against how he actually behaves when British wildlife is the topic of conversation.

When the government moved to close the trail hunting loophole, the one that lets hunts kill foxes illegally and call it something else, Farage didn’t stay quiet. He went on the attack, branding the plan “authoritarian” and comparing it to banning people from walking their dogs in the countryside. That’s not a man speaking up for the little guy. That’s a man defending a pastime that’s overwhelmingly the preserve of the wealthy and the landed, dressed up as a defence of ordinary rural life.

He’s told the press before that rural communities feel excluded by these restrictions. Excluded from what, exactly? From hunts sending hounds through gardens and up roads after a fox that’s already terrified and running for its life. That’s not community. That’s cruelty with a horn blown over the top of it.

Reform’s ‘Contract with You’ says the quiet part out loud

If you want it in black and white rather than just what Farage says on the day, look at Reform UK’s own manifesto. In the agriculture section of the party’s “Contract with You,” they commit to protecting “country sports.” That’s the industry’s own preferred euphemism for hunting and shooting, and Reform put it in writing.

Reform’s Suella Braverman has pushed back in Parliament on the trail hunting consultation too. This isn’t one man freelancing. It’s a party position, defended consistently, by people at the top of it.

Meanwhile the actual toll keeps mounting. We documented 411 incidents of hunting hounds chasing or killing foxes at observed hunt meets in a single season. Scale that across the full season and the true number runs into the thousands. That’s what’s being protected when a party manifesto talks about protecting “country sports.”

Not a man of the people. A man of the hunt

Farage wants Clacton to see a rebel taking on a rigged system. What he actually is, on this issue, is a defender of some of the oldest, most entrenched, most establishment interests in the country. Hunting with hounds has survived a ban in law for two decades because people with money and connections have kept finding ways round it, and Farage has spent his career making sure nobody closes the gap.

Pro fox hunting. Pro bird shooting. Backing a manifesto that protects country sports while staying almost entirely silent on nature and species protection more broadly. That’s not the record of an outsider. That’s the record of someone who’s always sided with the hunt over the hunted.

3 elections in 3 months - this is getting tiring!

This is the third election I’ve stood in over three months. Last month it was Makerfield, after Andy Burnham’s resignation triggered a by-election there. Before that, Edinburgh Central, where I stood dressed as a giant gannet to demand an end to the guga hunt on Sula Sgeir. Three elections, three chances to make sure wildlife doesn’t get talked over by everything else on the ballot paper.

Clacton is no different, except the man at the centre of it has a personal record on this issue that’s about as clear as it gets. So I’ll be there in the fox costume making sure that every time Farage tries to sell this election as him against the establishment, someone’s standing there reminding voters and cameras alike who he actually stands with when it comes to animals.

Whatever happens on results night, animals are going to be part of this by-election. British wildlife is going on the map again, right in the middle of the contest Farage built to be all about himself.

Help fund the fight

This costume, this campaign, this by-election, none of it happens without people backing us to do it. We don’t have Reform’s donors or Farage’s connections. What we have is thousands of people who care enough about British wildlife to chip in a few pounds a month, and that’s what gets a fox onto a ballot paper against the man defending the hunt.

If you want animals to stay on the map in this election and every one after it, become a monthly donor today. A few pounds a month from enough people is how we keep showing up, in Clacton, in Makerfield, in Edinburgh, wherever the next fight is. Farage has the establishment behind him. We’ve got you.