Labour orders its candidate against Nigel Farage to leave Clacton

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An extraordinary story from the Guardian:

Labour has been accused of "not putting up a fight" against Nigel Farage in Clacton after the party’s candidate was instructed to leave the constituency after "distracting" from Keir Starmer’s campaign.

Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, 27, who works for Labour’s equalities team, was installed by the party last month to contest the seat, weeks before Farage changed his mind and decided to stand in the Essex constituency.

Owusu-Nepaul has since been "seconded" to the West Midlands, while the local campaign in Clacton said that it had been banned from printing leaflets, blocked from using campaigning software and had access to the campaign’s social media overriden, with posts deleted on X.

If I lived in Clacton, I think I would hold my nose and vote for the Conservative candidate Giles Watling in an attempt to keep Farage out of parliament.

I have noticed Owusu-Nepaul getting attention on Twitter, though, if only for his dashing dress sense.

It seems that getting attention was his crime. According to the Guardian report:

A campaign source said Labour headquarters had been angry with the traction Owusu-Nepaul was getting. “At one point [Jovan] was getting more retweets than Keir Starmer. The officials were furious with him and said he was distracting [from] Starmer’s campaign,” they said.

No doubt Freddie and Fiona would thoroughly approve of this action, but I don't.