British politician Nigel Farage has comfortably won a local by-election on Friday after all the main political parties boycotted the vote in protest.
The former MEP had declared a “resounding victory” early Friday but said he would not attend the official result announcement that pitted him against Count Binface and a list of independent candidates.
Farage picked up over 22,000 votes in an election that saw a 44% turnout.
“The verdict is in and it is a convincing and overwhelming win,” he said as supporters chanted his name at an event in Essex, which was broadcast on X.
Farage triggered the vote by resigning his parliamentary seat, which he had held since 2024, over an investigation into his finances in the constituency of Clacton in the county of Essex.
The vote had been shunned by Britain’s main political parties, including the ruling Labour Party, as a stunt by the Reform UK leader – once touted as a potential prime minister – to dodge scrutiny of his dealings.
That has left candidates such as Binface – the alter ego of comedian Jon Harvey – to seize the spotlight.
“What an upside-down world it is, where Count Binface is now the candidate of the establishment,” Farage said in his speech.
He said he would not attend the count, where candidates traditionally gather for the declaration of results, saying Essex Police had warned him that an “organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result” was planned.
The BBC reported that this was not true, quoting Essex Police in a statement that read: “We have a proportionate and robust policing operation to ensure the safety and security of all participants in the count.”
Acting Returning Officer Ian Davidson said election officials had worked with police to ensure the process was “completed safely and securely”, adding there was “no reason not to proceed with the count process at this time”.
Analysts expected a win for Farage, but forecast that the self-styled “intergalactic space warrior”, who campaigns wearing a rubbish bin on his head, could secure an uncomfortably large share of the vote, possibly approaching 20 percent.
Binface took to social media after the result to declare himself the winner “of the candidates that ‘bothered to turn up for the results'” and, in a video, suggested Farage had been “humiliated” as one in four people in Clacton would prefer him to the Reform UK leader.
Turnout reached about 44.7 percent, down from 59 percent in the 2024 general election.
In the coastal community, many voters appeared unenthusiastic about the poll, with even some Reform party volunteers describing the contest as a joke.
“It’s a bit ridiculous,” party campaigner Jane Embelton told AFP.
“It’s all to make Nigel Farage look like an idiot, basically. But he doesn’t look like an idiot to me or his supporters.”
A record 33 fringe candidates, including Binface, stood in the vote, with some of the longest ballot papers in the country’s history seen being unfolded at Clacton Leisure Centre, where the count was held.
– ‘We can’t decide’ –
Farage, whose party had topped national polls for 18 months before falling behind recently, surprised voters with his July 7 resignation amid the probe into his finances.
The investigation by the parliamentary sleaze watchdog is examining allegations he and Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, failed to declare financial gifts. They deny any wrongdoing.
Farage has framed Thursday’s vote as “the people of Clacton versus the Establishment”, aimed at thwarting the “stitch-up” over his finances.
“The people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” he said in a video released before casting his vote.
Clacton voter Phil predicted the vote was “not going to change anything”, noting if Farage won as expected, the parliamentary probe would restart.
Political pundits have downplayed the vote’s wider significance in a constituency that overwhelmingly backed Brexit a decade ago.
“It will be astonishing if Farage were not to win,” political scientist John Curtice told AFP.
But some assessed Farage’s election gambit had backfired as his Reform party slips down national polls.
“Farage’s plan to turn this by-election into a serious political battle failed,” Queen Mary University of London politics professor Stijn van Kessel told AFP, noting the resulting spectacle “makes Farage look rather silly”.
Farage netted 46 percent of the vote in the 2024 general election to become an MP on his eighth attempt.
– Police probe –
The probe into Farage, which paused when he resigned, relates to a £5 million ($6.7m) donation from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.
Meanwhile, London police have confirmed starting a investigation last year into donations to Reform before the 2024 election.
UK media have reported that the police probe concerns undeclared financial support from longtime Farage ally and convicted fraudster George Cottrell and his mother.
The decision to trigger a by-election has seen a drop in support for Reform, which recently won a vast number of council elections across the UK in May.