Nigel Farage and Count Binface are the chief contenders in Thursday's Clacton byelection, according to limited polling, after the major parties declined to field candidates. Farage resigned the seat in July following a parliamentary inquiry into a £5m gift from a Thailand-based businessman, triggering the contest. The field includes 34 candidates in total, among them three from the Monster Raving Loony party.
Electoral histories diverge
Farage has been standing in British elections since 1994, when he narrowly beat Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony party into fourth place in a Commons byelection. He was elected five times to the European parliament before achieving his goal of abolishing his seat. After 30 years of trying, he was elected to the Commons as member for Clacton in 2024.
Count Binface, the persona of comedian and writer Jon Harvey, has had a shorter and, so far, less successful electoral career, although he has stood against four prime ministers. On Thursday, he will face Farage at the ballot box for the first time, alongside his longstanding electoral adversary Laurence Fox, standing for Reclaim.
Past encounters with rivals
Over the years, Farage has stood against dozens of British politicians, including in 2006 a young Labour candidate by the name of Rachel Reeves. In her capacity as chancellor a few weeks ago, it fell to Reeves to accept Farage's resignation as MP for Clacton. There was some speculation at the time that she was not obliged to do it, but she accepted the resignation on the basis that "if he [Farage] wants to spend summer arguing with a bin, I won't stop him."
Thursday's contest will not be the first time that either Farage or Binface has faced a novelty opponent. Riding high in the polls in 2015, Farage was so confident of winning Thanet South in that year's general election that he pledged to resign as leader of Ukip if he did not take the seat. This led Al Murray, a comedian whose main persona is the Pub Landlord, a straight-talking conservative patriot, to stand against Farage. Even without the resulting split in the straight-talking conservative patriot vote, Farage would have lost the seat. Ever a man of his word, Farage resigned, and then unresigned three days later.
Binface's origins and previous runs
Harvey's first electoral foray was not as Count Binface at all, but rather as the similarly behatted persona of Lord Buckethead. He was moved to adopt the Binface persona when a man got in touch claiming to hold copyright in the Buckethead character. In 2019, having failed to prorogue parliament, the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, called an early general election. A roster of novelty candidates – and Boris Johnson – ran in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, among them for the first and only time, both Count Binface and a copyright-approved Lord Buckethead.
Voters in Clacton on Thursday can, of course, choose to vote for neither Binface nor Farage. In fact, there are 34 candidates in all, including three from the Monster Raving Loony party. The result will determine who represents the constituency for the remainder of the parliamentary term.
