LONDON (AP) — Nigel Farage beat trash-can wearing comic candidate Count Binface to regain the seat in Parliament he quit a month ago to trigger the widely mocked special election.
Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party who some see as a possible next prime minister, abruptly quit his seat in July amid an investigation into whether he failed to report a 5 million pound ($6.7 million) gift from a crypto billionaire overseas.
He said he
would run for the open seat to prove he had voters’ support, and regained it with 63% of Thursday's vote. Binface, who finished in second, won about 27%, according to the results announced Friday. The election, held on the hottest day of the year so far, had turnout of 44%.
Binface, a serial candidate who has challenged prime ministers past and present, became the default challenger in a field of 34 candidates after the major parties boycotted the campaign as a political stunt by Farage.
Farage hailed the result as an “overwhelming win” with 1,000 more votes than he earned when first elected two years ago with 46% of the vote share. Turnout during the 2024 general election was nearly 60% and he faced a more robust field of mainstream candidates.
“Today the voters in Clacton have stuck up two fingers to the entire political establishment,” Farage said, referring to the British equivalent of a crude gesture that employs the middle finger in other cultures.
The victory by Farage showed his strong support in his conservative constituency on the east coast of England but it doesn’t ensure he’ll be able to keep the seat. An investigation by a parliamentary watchdog that was suspended when he stepped down is likely to resume and could still lead to Farage being forced out of Parliament to face yet another election.
Farage declared victory in the early morning and did not attend the official declaration where he would have had to stand alongside the other candidates, many of them running joke campaigns.
“I’m damned if I’m going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory ... and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies,” Farage told supporters at a victory party.
Farage said he didn’t attend because police told him about an “organized campaign to disrupt and degrade the result.” A spokesperson for Reform said there was a credible threat against him, though police disputed that.
Binface, who ran on a wacky platform that included a vow to “cut your taxes, and raise everyone else’s,” build one affordable home and nationalize singer Adele, celebrated his best-ever result. It was a massive increase from the votes he received in a special election two months ago against now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham, in which he won 95 votes.
“So against Nigel Farage compared to Andy Burnham, I am 1,000 times more popular,” he quipped. "Does that have anything to do with why he isn’t here tonight?”
Labour Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said the election was no victory for Farage and he needs to come clean over his finances and relationship with a convicted fraudster.
“The mountain of sleaze and scandal he and Reform are now engulfed in has grown and grown while he’s been trying to distract the public by fighting a by-election against a bin,” Phillipson said. “Farage’s distraction by-election doesn’t clear his name — it just shows he likely has so much more to hide.”
Parliament’s standards watchdog is investigating an undeclared donation to Farage in 2024 from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Farage says he didn’t need to declare the money because it was a personal gift he used to fund his security and was made before he was elected.
However, newly elected lawmakers must declare gifts worth more than 300 pounds ($400) received in the previous year if they are related to political activities.
When he resigned on July 7, he described the scrutiny as an “establishment hit job” and a media-driven “witch-hunt.”
Farage also faces an investigation into his financial relationship with George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto-gambling entrepreneur who served eight months in a U.S. prison for fraud a decade ago after offering to launder money for undercover agents posing as drug traffickers.
Cottrell, 32, remains close to Farage and has reportedly given him money for security and staff.
Farage, who was a major player in getting Britain to vote to leave the European Union a decade ago, has had strong polling nationally though his numbers have slipped during months of scrutiny of his finances.
Farage’s gambit to resign and run again backfired when other parties refused to participate and he was left facing a massive field of independent and small-party candidates, including novelty acts such as Howling Laud Hope of The Official Monster Raving Loony Party and Marcus White from the Everyone is God Party.
Binface, who was already a running joke in British elections, drew the most attention because of his satirical spin on politics and persona as a space alien from the planet Sigma IX.
By winning at least 5% of the vote, he's earned a refund of the deposit of 500 pounds ($675) candidates pay to run.
Under the black cape, trash can helmet and ample body armor straight out of a low-budget sci-fi film, Binface’s alter-ego is Jon Harvey, a middle-aged comedian who has spent much of the campaign trying to keep his cool during a sweltering summer.
He said his repeated candidacies were aimed at promoting the beauty of Britain’s centuries-old democracy where even the most high-profile politicians are above no one — including someone from outer space.
