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Nigel Farage, Leader of Britain’s Reform UK party, attends a press conference in London, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kin Cheung\/AP Photo\/Kin Cheung<\/p>\n
Nigel Farage, Leader of Britain’s Reform UK party, speaks during a press conference in London, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kin Cheung\/AP Photo\/Kin Cheung<\/p>\n
Nigel Farage, Leader of Britain’s Reform UK party, speaks during a press conference in London, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kin Cheung\/AP Photo\/Kin Cheung<\/p>\n
Nigel Farage, Leader of Britain’s Reform UK party, speaks during a press conference in London, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kin Cheung\/AP Photo\/Kin Cheung<\/p>\n
Nigel Farage, Leader of Britain’s Reform UK party, speaks during a press conference in London, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kin Cheung\/AP Photo\/Kin Cheung<\/p>\n
LONDON (AP) \u2014 Nigel Farage depicts himself as an outsider taking on the establishment, but now the tables have turned.<\/p>\n
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The leader of anti-immigration party Reform UK is running in an election as the incumbent favorite, and his main opponent is a man dressed as a dustbin.<\/p>\n
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Farage, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, triggered Thursday\u2019s special election in the English seaside town of Clacton by quitting his seat in the House of Commons last month. Facing awkward questions about his finances, Farage said he would let voters judge him in a \u201cpeople versus the establishment\u201d contest.<\/p>\n
But the other main parties called it a stunt and refused to take part, leaving Farage running against an assortment of independents, jokers and single-issue candidates led by Count Binface, a comic space alien with a trash can on his head. In that field, it\u2019s Farage who looks like the mainstream politician.<\/p>\n
Simon Usherwood, professor of politics and international studies at the Open University, said Farage\u2019s appeal is built on his image as a straight-talking individualist, \u201cthe kind of bloke you can have a pint with down the pub.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s that very charismatic aspect of Farage that is both his strength and his weakness,\u201d Usherwood said. \u201cHe has fallen into a trap of thinking that he is somehow immune from the kind of scrutiny that would undo other politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farage built his brand on Brexit and immigration<\/p>\n
For two decades, the populist Farage has led small parties with an outsized impact on British policy.<\/p>\n
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His charisma \u2014 and, critics say, his distortions \u2014 were key to securing victory for the \u201cleave\u201d side in Britain\u2019s 2016 European Union membership referendum. After Brexit, Farage switched his focus to migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, a stream that he has called an invasion.<\/p>\n
In 2024 he was elected to Parliament at his eighth attempt, representing the strongly Brexit-backing town of Clacton in eastern England.<\/p>\n
Becoming a lawmaker brought unwelcome scrutiny of his finances. Parliament\u2019s standards watchdog is investigating an undeclared donation of 5 million pounds ($6.7 million) to Farage in 2024 from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Farage says he didn\u2019t need to declare the money because it was a personal gift he used to fund his security and came before he was elected.<\/p>\n
Newly elected lawmakers must declare gifts worth more than 300 pounds ($400) received in the previous year if they are related to political activities.<\/p>\n
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Farage is also facing an investigation into his financial relationship with George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto-gambling entrepreneur who served eight months in a U.S. prison for fraud a decade ago after offering to launder money for undercover agents posing as drug traffickers.<\/p>\n
Cottrell, 32, remains close to Farage and has reportedly given him money for security and staff. U.K. media report that Cottrell and his mother have been interviewed by police as part of a probe into donations to Reform UK, though they have not been arrested.<\/p>\n
Farage is standing by the man he calls \u201cPosh George,\u201d saying Aug. 3: \u201cI don\u2019t ditch my allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farage faces off against Count Binface<\/p>\n
The governing Labour Party and opposition Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Greens all declined to run in Clacton. But it is still a crowded field, with almost three dozen candidates, including representatives of Rejoin EU, the Everyone is God Party and the Monster Raving Loony Party.<\/p>\n
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By far the best known is Count Binface, a frequent comedy candidate whose platform includes the pledge \u201cI will not accept 5-million-pound gifts from crypto billionaires (on Earth).\u201d He says his main appeal is \u201cI\u2019m not Nigel Farage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farage doesn\u2019t find it funny. He and his party claim Binface, alter ego of comedian Jon Harvey, is just another representative of a hostile political establishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe establishment is using every means available, fair and foul, to undermine Farage before the country gets a chance to elect him,\u201d Gawain Towler, Farage\u2019s former press officer and now a Reform UK board member, said in a blog post.<\/p>\n
Farage won handily in Clacton in 2024, and most observers expect him to win again. If he does, the parliamentary investigation of his finances will resume. A finding of wrongdoing could lead to Farage being suspended from Parliament and trigger yet another special election for the seat.<\/p>\n
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Reform UK has just seven lawmakers \u2014 eight if Farage is included \u2014 but led nationwide opinion polls for more than a year. But the party has recently suffered setbacks, losing a string of special elections, including one in June that brought now- Prime Minister Andy Burnham to power.<\/p>\n
After months of flagging popularity, Labour senses a \u201cBurnham bounce.\u201d Meanwhile, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has found her feet after a shaky start. And Restore Britain, a far-right party with just one lawmaker but a loud social media presence amplified by Elon Musk, is nibbling away at Reform\u2019s support.<\/p>\n
Farage, 62, has a history of walking away from parties he led. He stepped down from both the UK Independence Party and its successor, the Brexit Party, in the last decade.<\/p>\n
He has earned more than 2 million pounds ($2.7 million) outside of Parliament in the past two years from speeches, promotional work and television appearances, far more than he makes as a lawmaker. He might be tempted to quit politics again if he remains under sustained pressure.<\/p>\n
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Martin Farr, a contemporary historian at Newcastle University, said Farage will probably come out of the election strengthened, at least in the eyes of his supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo his supporters, this will be an example of how he\u2019s fearless and he\u2019s prepared to fight against, as he will put it, the tyranny of the majority, the tyranny of the establishment,\u201d Farr said. \u201cTo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage, Leader of Britain’s Reform UK party, attends a press conference in London, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[7786,13,42560,18066,35585,361,1361,42562,42561,42383,95,4351,4352,4348,4349,4353,6],"class_list":["post-101125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-andy-burnham","tag-britain","tag-britain-farage-clacton-election-binface-what-to-know","tag-christopher-harborne","tag-count-binface","tag-donald-trump","tag-elon-musk","tag-gawain-towler","tag-george-cottrell","tag-jon-harvey","tag-nigel-farage","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117075432300213878","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}