By Sarah Young
CLACTON, England, July 8 (Reuters) – A gamble by Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s populist Reform UK, to trigger an election for his own parliamentary seat could mean the only opponent he will face during campaigning is a man with a trash can on his head, better known as Count Binface.
Farage, 62, under investigation in parliament over millions of pounds of gifts from wealthy backers, said on Tuesday he wanted voters in his Clacton electoral district in southeast England to judge his actions, not what he characterised as a liberal “establishment” he said was bent on discrediting him.
Farage, whose party has been ahead in opinion polls, said the parliamentary standards committee investigating him was being used as a “political tool” by those who feared the electoral threat he posed. He has denied any wrongdoing.
But in the hours that followed, all the main political parties said they would not take part in the Clacton vote, dubbing it a “stunt” designed to distract attention from the issue of his finances.
COUNT BINFACE FOR PARLIAMENT
That has left only one person willing to challenge Farage — step forward Count Binface, a figure created by comedian Jonathan Harvey, who has run against three prime ministers over the last decade to poke fun at them while, he says, celebrating democracy.
“I will be a unity candidate and pledge to build at least one affordable house,” Count Binface, formerly known as Lord Buckethead, said on X.
Binface, who dresses in a silver outfit with matching cape and wears a silver trash can as a helmet, called on Clacton residents to give “your friendly neighbourhood intergalactic space warrior” the required 10 nominations so he could run.
Voters in Clacton had varying responses to Farage’s move on Wednesday: some were confused, a few said it confirmed their suspicions that everything was about him, but most said they still backed the veteran Brexit campaigner to tackle the issues they cared about, including immigration.
Zoe Banks, a 53-year-old office worker who didn’t vote for Farage in 2024 because she said no politician could change things, said she didn’t have a problem with the money as long as it was legal, and she believed he was being attacked by the political establishment.
“He’ll walk it,” she said of the vote. “This time I might actually vote for him, because if he’s not broken any rule … then, yeah, he’s got a right to complain.”
Ray Lynaugh, a 54-year-old bus driver, disagreed.
“I dislike the man immensely,” he told Reuters. “What he stands for, what he’s done to the country. He is self-serving, self-centred. He’s an abysmal human being.”
“Why people vote for him, I don’t know.”
ELECTION ‘FARCE’
For some in the governing Labour Party, opposition Conservatives and other parties, the possibility of Binface being Farage’s sole challenger sums up what they say is the absurdity of the Reform leader’s move to trigger the election.
“Nigel Farage vs Count Binface neatly illustrates the farce that is the Clacton by-election,” said Conservative lawmaker Ben Obese-Jecty.
For Reform UK, however, the mainstream parties’ decision to shun the election proved that they are afraid of taking on Farage, a skilled and pugnacious communicator who has arguably changed Britain more than some prime ministers despite never having served in government.
“They (the mainstream parties) consider it… their birthright to have a stranglehold over British politics, and that is why Nigel Farage is so threatening to that,” Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs policy chief, told BBC News.
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Alistair SmoutEditing by Gareth Jones)
