Would-be UK prime minister caught in fight with talking bin and ‘incredible flying brick’

In just a few hours, voters in a seaside British electorate will have a serious choice to make between an under-fire party leader, a talking garbage bin, and a three-foot-long list of other candidates including an “Incredible Flying Brick”.

The Clacton byelection was effectively called by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as a way to gain what he would frame as public backing in the face of a damaging financial scandal.

However, with every other major party boycotting the vote and dismissing Farage’s move as a political stunt, leaving Count Binface as his most prominent rival, the byelection has descended into something of a farce before the polls have even opened.

Polls open on Thursday at 7am UK time (4pm AEST). When they close 15 hours later, it’s widely predicted Farage will have gained the votes required to return him to parliament, despite Binface’s online popularity.

Much like Pauline Hanson’s One Nation in Australia, Farage and his anti-migrant, hard-right Reform UK party have enjoyed a surge in support since Britain’s last general election.

While he’s been a prominent voice in British politics for a decade, Farage has embraced the title of outsider and his party has topped recent national opinion polls, placing him as a genuine potential future prime minister.

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However, his election to parliament in 2024 – finally succeeding after seven failed attempts – brought with it newfound scrutiny, particularly in regards to an undeclared £5 million (roughly $10 million) donation from Thai-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

Farage claims he didn’t need to declare the 2024 gift because it was personal and used to fund his security before he was elected.

UK politicians are legally required to disclose any gifts worth more than £300 received in the previous year if they are related to political activities.

Facing a parliamentary investigation into that donation – and another one into his ongoing financial relationship with aristocratic crypto-gambling financier George Cottrell, who was jailed in the US for fraud – Farage resigned from the House of Commons in July.

That triggered Thursday’s byelection, which Farage said would be a chance for voters to judge the matters under investigation in a “people versus the establishment” contest.

Only the establishment didn’t turn up.

The Labour, Conservative, Green and Liberal Democrat parties all quickly announced they wouldn’t contest Clacton, dismissing Farage’s move as a stunt.

“It is a farce and a desperate distraction, and the people of Clacton deserve better,” then-Chancellor Rachel Reeves said at the time.

“But if he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won’t stop him.”

The bin in question is, of course, Count Binface.

The alter ego of comedian Jon Harvey, Binface regularly contests British elections, including running against Andy Burnham in the Makerfield byelection that effectively made him prime minister, as well as past PMs Rishi Sunak, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

His policy platform, such as it is, includes price caps for croissants and ice creams, building “at least one” affordable home, nationalising Adele, and a promise to “cut your taxes, and raise everyone else’s”.

Binface summed up his main appeal succinctly in an interview shortly after the byelection was announced.

“I’m not Nigel Farage.”

He’s also made several pointed digs at the Reform leader, promising not to take £5 million donations, and to save voters more than £350,000 – the cost of a second byelection that would take place if Farage wins this one only to be booted from parliament due to the financial investigations.

The jokes haven’t gone down well at Reform HQ.

In the absence of the major parties, Farage has tried to portray Binface, the self-proclaimed “intergalactic space warrior”, as part of the political establishment.

“The establishment is using every means available, fair and foul, to undermine Farage before the country gets a chance to elect him,” Reform UK board member Gawain Towler said.

Unsurprisingly, Binface is leaning into the same tactic.

“I’m the only fresh thing on the menu,” Binface said.

“You’re all sick of these politicians, as good as they’re trying to be, but you know you need something different, a little bit of secret sauce.”

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That “menu” in Clacton is extensive; this byelection has set a record for the most candidates in a UK vote, with 34.

Also on the 90-centimetre-long ballot paper are Australian-born Daniel Pocock, ultra-far-right Reclaim leader Laurence Fox, and three members from the novelty Official Monster Raving Loony Party: Howling Laud Hope, Baron Von Thunderclap and Nick the Incredible Flying Brick.

While Reform’s momentum has somewhat stalled recently, Farage is widely expected to easily retain his seat – one recent opinion poll put him at more than 70 per cent of the vote, with Count Binface the next-best with 20 per cent.

Even if Binface takes a significant chunk of the vote, Reform’s supporters are likely to celebrate any result that ends in Farage’s re-election, regardless of the lack of competition.

“To his supporters, this will be an example of how he’s fearless and he’s prepared to fight against, as he will put it, the tyranny of the majority, the tyranny of the establishment,” UK contemporary historian Martin Farr said.

“To his opponents, it suggests a thin-skinned demagogue who has reacted petulantly to scrutiny and has been embarrassed by the fact that no one else has taken his stand seriously.”