"Every fucking penny": Tony Mack breaks his silence on Farage, and contradicts him directly. Anthony Mack, the man Nigel Farage personally displaced as Reform's candidate for Clacton in June 2024, has broken two years of public silence with a direct, on the record account that contradicts Farage's own version of events. At his resignation press conference this week, Farage was asked whether this was the moment Clacton's actual candidate discovered he was no longer standing. Farage replied that "he knew six months ago that it was a possibility." Mack's account is starkly different. "The warning was 45 minutes before announcing it live," he told The Verified Receipts. He says he was actively assured by the party that Farage was not standing, and that Bray, Harris and the others brought in around the same time "were not part of Reform." Mack says Farage gave the campaign to them "whilst simultaneously assuring me and asking me to run it and be his number two in Clacton," a role Mack says never materialised. He says Farage asked him for a public statement of support, then "reneged on everything he said including, and I quote directly, 'every fucking penny' I and my team had spent taking Reform from 9% to 24% in Clacton would be recompensed." Mack says he has still not received any of it. Asked whether he'd stand in the by-election Farage has now triggered, Mack was unambiguous: "No I do not intend to stand and partake in the Farage circus stunt," calling it "a desperate attempt for him to claim victimisation himself again, and apportion blame elsewhere rather than taking any responsibility himself," and accusing Farage of trying to "hoodwink the public of Clacton to the tune of £250k," a reference to the estimated cost of the by-election. "It's a disgrace and a desperate ego stroke by a Machiavellian self-interested hypocrite," Mack said. Mack rejected any suggestion he'd been silent by choice, saying he's given interviews on independent media over the past year, and had spoken to The Times and Times Radio on the day of publication. We have the full conversation on record.