{"id":576041,"date":"2026-07-09T01:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/576041\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T01:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T01:11:12","slug":"farage-faces-count-binface-in-clacton-byelection-after-main-parties-rule-out-running-candidates-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/576041\/","title":{"rendered":"Farage faces Count Binface in Clacton byelection after main parties rule out running candidates \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigel Farage<\/a> was on Wednesday granted his wish to hold a by-election in his Clacton seat, but he was ridiculed in the House of Commons and will now face a battle for votes with comedy candidate Count Binface.<\/p>\n

UK chancellor Rachel Reeves said she had agreed to use her powers under Britain\u2019s arcane electoral law to allow the Reform UK<\/a> leader to go ahead with the byelection, rejecting some calls that she block the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a farce and a desperate distraction, and the people of Clacton deserve better,\u201d Reeves said. \u201cBut if he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won\u2019t stop him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Reform figures insisted Farage\u2019s move had not backfired, arguing that the refusal of all the main rival parties to put up a candidate in the contest showed they were \u201crunning scared\u201d.<\/p>\n

But there was undisguised glee among Farage\u2019s opponents over what they regard as a major tactical mistake, and some Reform insiders fear that their leader will be left embarrassed.<\/p>\n

One Reform insider said it was \u201cgame over\u201d for Farage. \u201cIn an attempt to reaffirm his position in British politics, Nigel is going to have a byelection against a bin,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Farage announced on Tuesday that he would stand down as an MP to trigger what he described as a \u201cpeople versus the establishment\u201d byelection following criticism of his failure to register gifts and benefits he received from wealthy benefactors.<\/p>\n

But David Lammy, standing in for Keir Starmer<\/a> at prime minister\u2019s questions on Wednesday, ridiculed Farage\u2019s claim that he was taking a stand against a powerful elite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe City trader, Putin admiring, professional politician who is pals with crypto billionaires versus Count Binface,\u201d Lammy said to cheers from MPs. Binface is 4\/1 at William Hill to win the seat, second behind Farage on 1\/6.<\/p>\n

Rob Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester, said \u201cnever say never\u201d about Binface winning the election outright, though he said there was likely a \u201cceiling on the appeal of novelty candidates\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ford said there could yet be a \u201cwhite knight\u201d candidate that steps into the ring to fight Farage, pointing to the 1997 byelection when former BBC journalist Martin Bell fought against Conservative MP Neil Hamilton as a protest against corruption and won a huge majority.<\/p>\n

Laurence Fox, an anti-Islam former actor, has also said he will run in Clacton.<\/p>\n

Reform\u2019s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf claimed on Wednesday that other party leaders were \u201crunning scared\u201d, telling the BBC that \u201cthe only reason they are choosing not to field a candidate is because they know in their hearts that they have virtually no chance of beating [Farage]\u201d.<\/p>\n

Farage is already facing a parliamentary standards investigation over his failure to declare a \u00a35 million gift he received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in 2024, weeks before he announced he would take over leadership of Reform and stand as an MP in Clacton.<\/p>\n

He could yet face a second. Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary standards commissioner, has also been urged to examine whether Farage should have declared benefits \u2013 including private security, staff and accommodation \u2013 provided to him by his long-time aide George Cottrell before the 2024 general election.<\/p>\n

Reform has denied he has breached any Commons rules in both cases.<\/p>\n

If Farage is found to have broken Commons rules, he could be forced to step down as an MP again, triggering another byelection in Clacton, which opposition parties say they would contest. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage was on Wednesday granted his wish to hold a by-election in his Clacton seat, but he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,20567,20566,7,8,20565,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-576041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-nigel-farage","tag-reform-uk","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-uk-politics","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116887360991800509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}