It's now or never for Nigel Farage: We join Reform Leader in Clacton - and here's what we found...

Farage, who transformed his own standing from conservative court jester to kingmaker, is now looking to pull off yet another political feat.

Propelled by a widespread sense of disaffection, Farage will stand as Reform UK’s candidate in Clacton on July 4.

“Nigel, Nigel, Nigel,” the crowd cried as Reform UK’s star-man marched towards Clacton Pier.

Sat in a pub in the birthplace of Brexit, where Union flags fly proudly on street corners, I can’t help but also think Farage might pull this off.

Excluding three protesters holding an anti-Farage banner and a milkshake being chucked over the man who has made more comebacks than Cincinnatus, Farage fever descended over the seaside town.

The heckling trio were involved in several arguments with Farage’s fans.

And one woman, stood just yards away, was holding up a much more supportive poster.

“Nigel Farage for our new Prime Minister,” it said.

Clacton is a reservoir of populism and home to thousands of members of Farage’s so-called “people’s army”.

And many of them descended on the Boardwalk at midday.

The crowd, too strong to put a figure on, symbolised a position many people feel in this country.

But it was far more interesting when I was walking around Clacton hours before Farage’s launch.

• Nigel Farage's direct message to GB News viewers as Tories warn Reform risks Brexit
• ‘They didn’t want to know!’ Sunak warned about threat from Farage LAST YEAR but ignored Tory Right
• ‘Extinction territory!’ Farage’s election ‘game-changer’ forces Sunak’s Tories to fight for ‘survival’

Despite being noticeably quieter, residents repeatedly voiced angst about immigration and dismay at a general sense of being left behind.

That very sense threatens to tear the Conservative Party apart, potentially prompting the Tory “takeover” plot Farage keeps quipping about.

It was hard to find anyone in town vocally supporting the Tories.

Two men, neither particularly fond of Farage, suggested they could vote for the theatre-star-turned-Tory Giles Watling.

However, what I could hear was dozens of ex-Tory voters now supporting Farage.

Almost every single convert, when prompted to list a reason, cited immigration.

For many in the Westminster bubble, Reform UK’s “Immigration Election” message is divisive and toxic.

In Clacton, which sits high up in the list of constituencies most concerned with legal and illegal immigration, it was exactly what voters wanted to hear.

And Farage fever continued in Clacton for hours after.

Over a much-deserved pint at the Moon & Starfish, a group of locals asked whether I thought Farage would win.

I replied: “As much as he’s lost seven times before, I really do think so.”

Firing the parliamentary starting gun on Britain’s path to Brexit, the coastal constituency has already twice returned ex-Tory MP Douglas Carswell under UKIP’s purple and yellow banner.

Carswell’s vote share, monumental on both occasions, helped explain why 69.5 per cent of residents across Tendring backed Brexit.

However, given Boris Johnson received the support of 72.5 per cent of constituents in 2019, anyone with any sense of electoral arithmetic would assume Clacton is now out of reach.

Clacton, which sees political diversity stretch from impecunious Jaywick to genteel Frinton, is not only a bedrock of “small-c” conservatism but a bastion of Brexit Britain.

Constituents in the seaside town have only been represented by Labour during the Blair years, when the seat was lumped together with Harwich and Ivan Henderson was returned to Parliament.

Besides a brief flirtation with Labour centrism, Clacton has been a Conservative stronghold since 1968 when longstanding Liberal National MP Julian Risdale was swallowed up by an emboldened Tory Party.

Outside of Westminster, Clacton provides ample opportunity for third parties to leave their mark at a local level.

UKIP returned 22 councillors across Tendring from a standing start in 2015, with a further 10 getting elected as independents or from minor parties.

Farage could also twice call on Clactonians to propel him to victory in 2014 and 2019.

In the 2014 EU Parliamentary Elections, UKIP became the first party other than the Tories or Labour to win a national poll since 1906.

Farage received 26.6 per cent, returned 24 MEPs and could count on 48.4 per cent in Clacton.

Following the Brexit referendum, Farage yet again took on the mantel as Brussels bruiser.

Receiving 30.5 per cent nationally, returning 29 MEPs, Farage also hoovered up 54.3 per cent in Clacton.

Opinion polls ahead of Farage’s announcement gave Tory incumbent Watling hope of clinging on.

There was no sign of much appetite for Labour candidate Jovan Owusu-Nepaul.

It was also hard to detect any real drive behind either Matthew Bensilum or Natasha Osben longshot bids for the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party respectively.

The latest YouGov MRP poll, which puts Labour on course for a landslide that would make Tony Blair blush, found the Conservatives hold a 15-point lead over Labour and Reform UK languish a further seven per cent behind.

However, British politics is increasingly being infected by an ever-American attitude.

Despite positioning ourselves as a parliamentary democracy, our elections have increasingly become presidential.

Whether it was Jeremy Corbyn for the left in 2017 or Boris Johnson for the right in 2019, leading figures have managed to grip a large group of voters by putting their finger on the electoral pulse.

Farage is no different.

A poll conducted in January suggested Farage would win by 10-points over Watling if he contested the seat.

The survey, carried out by Survation, revealed the former Brexit Party leader would pick up 37 per cent, with Watling’s support collapsing to just 27 per cent.

And be left in no doubt; the Farage boost will be felt across much of Leave-voting England and Wales.

Now, I’m not saying it is enough for Reform UK to form a gaggle of its own on the green benches on July 5.

We’ve already heard wildly optimistic predictions about UKIP before which failed to materialise.

However, if Reform UK were already hopeful of Ashfield MP Lee Anderson and chairman Richard Tice denting Tory morale, then they might have a little spring in their step now.

And when it comes to Farage’s chances; the bookies put his odds at 4/11.

I know it's not great returns but I might just have to stick a tenner on it.