In January 2009, Howes stood as a Labour candidate in a Borough Council by-election finishing a distant second to the Conservatives. Howes' selection was without the prior knowledge of the group's leader on the Council. A row subsequently erupted when Clarke appeared in Labour by-election literature, endorsing the party's candidate. This resulted in Howes and election Agent Anjona Roy also being expelled Howes died in December 2014 aged 67. The voters in Castle ward in the centre of Northampton picked Clarke to represent them on the county council at 4 June 2009 County Council elections. Clarke now represented the Castle ward as an independent on both Northampton borough and Northamptonshire county councils. He said: "The people have spoken and I'll now take this all the way to the General Election to give the people the chance to vote independent". At the count he was observed to have been congratulated by his old Labour colleagues Dickie and Howes (see above). He beat the official Labour candidate into second place in what is normally a solid Labour county council division. In September 2009, the national Labour Party suspended Northampton South Constituency Labour Party. The local paper reported that the move was made after Clarke was featured in local Labour literature given out during the January by-election. In the 2013 Northamptonshire County Council election, Clarke stood as a candidate for Castle Division coming second with 437 votes to the winning Labour candidate's 806. In August 2008, Clarke stated that he would stand against Labour as an independent at the next Parliamentary Election for Northampton South Constituency and did so on 6 May 2010. He polled fourth with 2,242 votes, behind the three main parties' candidates, and avoiding losing his deposit. His campaign cost over £8,000. He lost his borough seat to Labour in 2011. The boundary of the constituency changed for the 2010 election with the loss of some parts of the southern and western areas to the Daventry and the new South Northamptonshire constituency. The areas lost were generally be considered Conservative, thus increasing the possibility of Labour regaining the seat. However, it remained firmly Conservative with Clarke's intervention, having an effect on the Labour vote. Clarke had earlier said: ""...I think the only chance they [Labour] had of winning went out of the window when they declared internal war on half the membership [of the local Labour party] in 2005. It should be a safe Labour seat, but I'll stand as an independent and I'll take on Brian Binley if they can't.""