You might be interested in

Holaluz: what happened to the ‘rooftop revolution’?

LondonThe far-right extremist Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform Party, regained on Friday morning the seat for the Clacton-on-Sea constituency – southeast England – in the by-elections held yesterday, Thursday, and called following his own resignation, in early July. Farage had turned the contest into a plebiscite between his figure and the Westminster establishment. In objective terms, Farage has obtained a solid victory (22,239 votes, 63.34%), just over a thousand more ballots than in the 2024 general election, with a now lower turnout (44.37% compared to 58.7% two years ago).


Read it all

Traditional parties, however, refused to participate in the electoral race, given what they considered an attempt to divert attention from the investigation opened by Parliament into a donation of five million pounds that Farage received from cryptocurrency magnate Christopher Harborne. The investigation will resume once Parliament returns to session in September.

Contrary to what is usual, Farage did not attend the official announcement of the results due to what party sources have denounced as a “credible threat” against his physical integrity, which the Essex police had allegedly communicated to them. Police sources, however, have denied this version.

The leader of the UK Reform Party, Nigel Farage, in a file image.

The controversial MP limited himself to celebrating the victory in the early hours of the morning at an event with his supporters, dubbed Farage Fest. Once the results were read out, the now-elected MP limited himself to publishing a photo of himself taken during the celebration on X and a single sentence: “The Clacton result speaks for itself”.

Boycott by major parties

In any case, Thursday’s election has been one of the most unusual in recent British politics, with a counterpoint difficult to ignore: The boycott, by the Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrats among others, has resulted in their closest rival being the satirical candidate Count Binface, who, usually disguised as an astronaut with a trash can on his head (this means binface), has achieved 9,455 votes, 26.93% of the total. Extraordinary figures that can be read as a protest against Farage, considering that in the previous partial elections in which Binface had participated, it had never exceeded 320 votes.

The withdrawal of the major parties left the field open for a victory by Farage in a traditionally brexiter before a mosaic of 34 candidates, the highest number ever recorded in a constituency for British parliamentary elections. In addition to Binface, there were several independent candidates and other prominent far-right figures. And while the result is overwhelming in percentage terms, it is less impressive in absolute numbers of votes.

All of this allows for a more nuanced reading of the Reform Party leader’s victory. Farage retains a solid base in Clacton, a coastal district in Essex that became one of his main strongholds in the wake of Brexit. But the high proportion of votes for Binface also shows that a considerable part of the electorate has turned the call into a protest, a joke, or both at the same time. Behind the Count Binface character is the screenwriter and comedian Jonathan David Harvey.