Farage vs Count Binface: What to know about UK snap poll

Hard-right UK politician Nigel Farage will be fighting for his parliamentary seat Thursday, going head-to-head with parody candidate Count Binface in snap polls.

The by-election was called after Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party, resigned last month as MP for Clacton-on-Sea.

But his surprise move amid a probe into his finances has threatened to backfire as none of the major political parties has fielded a candidate, denouncing Farage's gamble as a stunt.

Count Binface, a self-described "intergalactic space warrior and leader of the Recyclons" from Sigma IX, has now emerged as his main competition.

Farage was elected in 2024 -- on his eighth attempt -- winning by 46 percent with 21,225 votes.

But he resigned as MP on July 8 amid a probe by the parliamentary sleaze watchdog into his finances.

With typical showmanship, Farage, 62, said he would seek re-election in the ensuing by-election, pitching the vote as a "people versus the establishment by-election" fight.

Clacton, a seaside resort in eastern Essex that voted overwhelmingly for Brexit in the 2016 referendum, is expected to re-elect Farage by a large majority, according to polls.

But Count Binface, who dresses with a grey dustbin over his head wearing a cape and silver armour, could snatch a fifth of the votes, according to a Survation poll.

A total of 34 candidates are running, local authorities have confirmed -- the highest number of any UK parliamentary election. Most are standing as independents.

The ballot paper will be nearly a metre long, presenting a challenge for the local authorities, with some 78,245 eligible voters.

By-elections are triggered by the resignation, death or conviction of the sitting MP.

Before resigning, Farage had been facing growing scrutiny over the non-disclosure of gifts -- including a £5 million ($6.6 million) donation from crypto-currency billionaire Christopher Harborne and non-declared financial support from convicted fraudster George Cottrell.

MPs are obliged to declare any financial support they received up to a year before their election. 

But Farage claimed the donation from Harborne was a gift for his security made before he became an MP.

"The people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions," he said.

London police are also investigating donations made to Reform by Cottrell's mother, Fiona.

Count Binface is part of a long British tradition of satirical election candidates.

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party -- first set up in 1982 by musician David Sutch -- also has three candidates running in Clacton.

"The general population quite like the fact that there are ridiculous people on stage" in what is normally a dour political event, party member and candidate Nick The Flying Brick told AFP.

His fellow party candidates are called Baron von Thunderclap and Howling Laud Hope. But some satirical candidates have a more serious message than others, he noted.

Merchandise available on Count Binface's website includes T-shirts with the slogan "I fight fascists and extortionate croissants".

Binface -- the alter-ego of Oxford-educated comedian Jon Harvey -- has urged voters to protect democracy.

"Behind every one of these campaigns is a simple argument: that showing up matters, that a ballot is worth casting even when you know how the night ends," he writes on his website.

Farage's resignation meant the parliamentary investigation into his finances has been paused. But if he is re-elected it will undoubtedly be resumed once parliament's summer recess ends in September.

"Ultimately all it does is buy him time," Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, told AFP.

"He'll probably make it back into parliament but at that point the investigation will start up again. So he can run, but he can't hide."

If Farage is found guilty of serious misconduct and faces sanctions, there could well be another by-election.

Reform's popularity has also been slipping, with recent surveys showing Labour has overtaken it again in national voting polls.

"Clacton could be very important -- it could show that ... Nigel Farage and Reform UK have peaked," Pete Dorey, professor of British politics at Cardiff University, told AFP.

"If he only wins narrowly, or with a much lower number of votes compared to the 2024 election, then this would suggest that his popularity was declining, and that his credibility has been damaged."