{"id":91378,"date":"2024-07-09T20:28:11","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T20:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/09\/labour-clacton-candidate-faced-campaign-intimidation-and-racism\/"},"modified":"2024-07-09T20:28:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T20:28:11","slug":"labour-clacton-candidate-faced-campaign-intimidation-and-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/09\/labour-clacton-candidate-faced-campaign-intimidation-and-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour Clacton candidate faced campaign ‘intimidation and racism’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0Lewis Adams,\u00a0<\/span>BBC News, Essex<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MartinMartin Suker<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Jovan Owusu-Nepaul (centre) came third in the Clacton constituency, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage winning the seat<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A Labour candidate said he feared being alone on the general election campaign trail because of the “intimidation and racism” he faced.<\/p>\n

Jovan Owusu-Nepaul said people asked “Where are you really from?” and tore up his election leaflets in the Essex constituency of Clacton.<\/p>\n

“You think about what happened to Jo Cox and Sir David Amess,” the defeated candidate said, referencing the two murdered MPs.<\/p>\n

Despite his concerns, Mr Owusu-Nepaul said his experience “put a fire in my belly” to tackle societal issues head-on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"DanDan Kitwood\/Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mr Owusu-Nepaul said his experiences on the campaign trail “put a fire in my belly”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Mr Owusu-Nepaul said a toxic atmosphere clouded the campaign trail, but he told the BBC his relationship with Mr Farage was “completely amicable”.<\/p>\n

“I was never left alone, thank God, but I never felt particularly safe enough to be by myself,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You’re always very mindful in as much as you campaign with passion and enthusiasm, you just want to watch your back.<\/p>\n

“We’d get emails that weren’t very pleasant and Facebook messages that weren’t very pleasant, and you don’t really know who or where these people are.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Fire in my belly’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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The political hopeful said the racism he faced included being told “We don’t want people like you here”.<\/p>\n

He added: “People were interrogating my name and asking, ‘Where are you really from?’ and, ‘Where are your parents from?’<\/p>\n

“They kept asking until I gave them an answer that satisfied them.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Owusu-Nepaul said his campaign in Clacton was an opportunity to “listen and learn”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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However, Mr Owusu-Nepaul said the opportunity to challenge people’s viewpoints was “brilliant”.<\/p>\n

“It’s almost good to know these people exist so we can work together to tackle it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The campaign was a real opportunity to listen and learn. It reminded me of the purpose of public service.<\/p>\n

“It put a fire in my belly to continue to address inequality and the lack of opportunity that exists in parts of the UK.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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5 hours ago By\u00a0Lewis Adams,\u00a0BBC News, Essex Martin Suker Jovan Owusu-Nepaul (centre) came third in the Clacton constituency, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage winning the seat A Labour candidate said he feared being alone on the general election campaign trail because of the “intimidation and racism” he faced. Jovan Owusu-Nepaul said people asked “Where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[2243,2309,61964,13642,34801,843,368],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91380,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91378\/revisions\/91380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}