The Labour Party candidate for Clacton, who is standing against Reform Party leader Nigel Farage, once described white man tears as his “favourite drink.”
Jovan Owusu-Nepaul was selected as the Labour candidate for Clacton in April this year, just under a month before the general election was announced. Previously the chair of the inner London constituency of Lewisham Deptford, Owusu-Nepaul claimed that he has “fond memories of day trips to the constituency for childhood holidays and eating fish and chips on the beach.”
In an interview with BBC News, the Labour candidate said that he stands against the “politics of gimmicks” that are so effectively performed by the Conservatives and his effective number one rival in the polls, Nigel Farage. Instead he wants to campaign on the issues that “affect local people,” and make a “positive case.”
However, his previous postings on a now-deleted Twitter account show a very different side of the candidate. While studying at Goldsmiths University London and an active campaigner for Labour, Owusu-Nepaul insulted a significant number of his future potential constituents.
Maliha Reza, another London-based Labour campaigner, and contributor to the Huffington Post, tweeted in December 2019 that “going into 2020, [she was] going to continue being vocal about how to tackle racism and about the fact [she drinks] white man tears on a regular basis.” Replying to Reza, Owusu-Nepaul said that it was his “favourite drink.”
Further examination of Owusu-Nepaul’s deleted Twitter account shows him complaining about a lack of focus on non-white philosophers in his politics degree, describing himself as “anti-fascist,” claiming that Twitter was “exhausting for non white people,” and identifying himself as being part of the “Wakanda diaspora.”
Clacton is one of the “whitest” constituencies in the UK. Over 96% of the local population is white, which is 15 points higher than the average nationwide. Only 5% of the residents were born outside of the country, with the national average being closer to 17%.
Owusu-Nepaul has been promoted by a number of left-leaning personalities on X, including broadcasters Marina Purkiss and Carol Vorderman, as the candidate to back to make sure that Farage doesn’t get elected in the seat.
A poll taken by Survation in January this year before Farage announced he was set to stand in the Essex seat revealed that if he chose to do so, he could potentially win the constituency with 37% of the vote.
