Reform UK activists have been urged to ditch the Greater Manchester mayoral byelection and head 250 miles south to support Nigel Farage’s “fake” contest in Clacton. A WhatsApp message shared with party members in north-west England read: “The message could not be more clear. We now need all of our fantastic activists, branch officers and councillors to come and help us in Clacton.” The text, seen by the Guardian, asks members to fill out a volunteering form for the Essex byelection, adding: “We look forward to seeing you in Clacton.”

Reform UK had hoped to claim its biggest scalp yet in Greater Manchester, where voters will elect a new mayor after Andy Burnham won the Makerfield byelection, setting him on a path to No 10. Farage’s party won heavily across the region of 2 million voters in the May elections, gaining 106 seats, with polling showing it narrowly behind Labour. But the campaign appears to have been upended by Farage’s snap byelection in his Clacton constituency, amid questions over his financial interests.

Labour’s candidate, Bev Craig, is the favorite to win the Greater Manchester byelection - the biggest ever held in Britain - on 30 July. The Clacton contest is expected a week later, on 6 August. A Reform UK councillor who received the WhatsApp message, sent on Wednesday, said the party was “desperate” to show support for its embattled leader, even at the expense of surrendering the mayoralty. They said it suggested the party “don’t believe they can win” in Burnham’s backyard, giving ammunition to claims it has “a woman problem,” as campaigners are diverted from helping Greater Manchester candidate Sian Astley, a local businesswoman and TV personality.

A Reform spokesperson said: “The WhatsApp message in question was shared with every single Reform UK branch chair across the country. It was not targeted at one specific area or region. We are taking both byelections incredibly seriously. Our campaign plans for the Greater Manchester mayor byelection remain unchanged.”

Farage announced Tuesday he was standing down from the seat he’s held since the 2024 general election and would run again in what he calls a “people versus the establishment” contest. However, his strategy backfired as main rivals announced within hours they would boycott the byelection. So far, only novelty candidate Count Binface and former actor Laurence Fox, leader of the rightwing Reclaim party, have said they’ll stand against Farage.

Speaking at a campaign event Thursday, Craig called the Clacton byelection a “circus” and wondered if Reform’s appeal for activists in Essex was a ploy to “lull us into a false sense of security” in Greater Manchester. “The reality is … Reform is still a serious threat in Greater Manchester, so I will be campaigning hard to make sure that we win,” she said.

A Green party spokesperson said: “Reform have now clearly given up in order to spend the next month taking on a guy with a bin on his head. Meanwhile the Green campaign here is taking off. People are seeing that Labour has failed and has run Manchester for big money and developers, not people, and we have a plan to do the opposite.”

In local elections eight weeks ago, Labour lost 108 councillors. Reform won 106 seats overall, including all but one of 25 in Wigan and 18 of 19 in Tameside, once solidly Labour areas. The Greens, who made significant gains in May, are believed to be in third place in the Greater Manchester byelection.