Count Binface: “Nigel, who said he didn’t want to be humiliated, maybe has been”

“I’m just getting started” — The novelty political candidate, created by Jonathan David Harvey, came second in the Clacton by-election after winning 9,455 votes and more than a quarter of the votes.

Count Binface has claimed the last laugh in Clacton after coming second to Nigel Farage in a bizarre by-election that saw the satirical candidate win more than a quarter of the vote.

Farage comfortably retained the Essex seat, securing 22,239 votes and 63% of the total. The Reform UK leader did not attend the count, saying Essex Police had warned him about a threat to disrupt the result, while Binface was there to celebrate his showing.

“I can officially say I am the winning candidate of the candidates who bothered to turn up for the results,” Binface said afterwards in a statement posted to his Instagram.

• Read next: Inside the wild world of novelty political candidates

The result saw the novelty candidate take 27% of the vote, despite standing against a sitting MP and leader of a major political party. The contest was boycotted by Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, who dismissed the by-election as a stunt, and attracted a record 34 candidates.

Binface also compared his Clacton performance with his previous electoral campaigns, saying: “I got 10,000% more votes against Nigel Farage than I did against Andy Burnham.”

“Over one in four people in this constituency would rather have Binface as their MP than the leader of Reform UK”, he continued.

• Read next: Activists replace Union Jacks with ‘Tax The Rich’ flags in Farage’s Clacton

Farage celebrated his victory before the result had formally been declared, telling supporters that Clacton voters had “stuck two fingers up at the entire political establishment”.

He said Essex Police had warned him not to attend because of an “organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result”. The force later told the BBC it had not advised any candidate against attending, adding that it had a “proportionate and robust” policing operation in place to protect everyone involved.

The parliamentary investigation into whether Farage should have declared a £5m gift has resumed hours after his by-election victory. The inquiry had been paused when Farage resigned as an MP last month, triggering the Clacton contest.

Farage has previously faced scrutiny over the financial backing he received, which was among the issues surrounding his decision to trigger the by-election.

Ella Glossop is Huck’s social editor. Follow her on Bluesky.

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