As expected, Reform party leader and generally odious person Nigel Farage has won the Clacton byelection that he triggered by resigning his seat. There were 34 candidates but none from any of the major parties, who accused Farage of pulling a stunt to try and avoid a parliamentary inquiry into money he received from a cryptocurrency billionaire.
But Farage cannot be pleased with the result, because of the low turnout and that his main opponent was Count Binface, a joke candidate who won nearly 27% of the vote, the first time that he has not lost his deposit of £500, which requires a candidate to get 5% of the vote.
After a campaign in which a record-breaking 34 candidates vied for the coastal seat, Farage held on to Clacton, with 22,239 votes (62.8%) of the vote.
His nearest competitor, Count Binface, a parody candidate dressed as an intergalactic rubbish bin, won 9,455 votes (26.7%). The turnout was 44%.
Farage did not attend the traditional ceremony where the results are announced, because he was afraid that he would be embarrassed by Binface.
I had hoped that Count Binface would, at least, retain his deposit. And he has — quite comfortably. That is a first!
Now they can get on with investigating Farridge’s dodgy-seeming finances. That seems to be the reason why Farridge pulled this by-election stunt in the first place.
Farage claimed local police advised him not to attend due to safety concerns. He then said to his supporters “…I’m not scare of these people, far from it. But I’m damned if I’m going to stand on a stage […] and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies.” The police themselves stated they provided proportionate police cover to ensure safety at the count announcement, and did not advise anyone to stay away.
We already knew he was a liar, nice to see he is also a coward.
An MP who resigned from their seat (which they are not supposed to do anyway; there is a convoluted process which involves applying for one of two sinecure jobs from which sitting MPs are barred, therefore if they are approved and accept the post, they will be kicked out of their seat) should be automatically blocked from standing in the resulting by-election.
Of course, all this assumes everyone is playing by the rules anyway. The system was never set up to be able to handle multiple political parties, working as a tag team for the same billionaire and corporate sponsors who have been afforded the opportunity to edit their manifesti in return for financial considerations to achieve a particular objective.
The people with the big money will stop at nothing until Farage is installed in Number 10.
Full results at WikiP:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Clacton_by-election#Result
In case anyone is curious about how the “Monster Raving Loony” party candidates did.
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Noted in the Guardian article linked above:
(boldface mine)
Record-breaking!
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There’s a photo of the ballots, and on one, someone took the opportunity spoil their ballot by scrawling in large block letters “WHAT A DISGRACEFUL WASTE OF MONEY” all along that 90-cm length.
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Today is Friday — do they mean today, or in a week?
One hopes they mean today.
A Different Bias has a brief summary of the situation, after 44% of the voters turned out- a high participation for a by-election -- and more than a quarter voted for the joke candidate instead of Farage.
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“Count Binface Vote Causes Farage to Flee Clacton”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=KMa3jl27Hhc
I was just looking at the Guardian article, and noticed on the bottom:
Nigel Farage investigation reopened by parliamentary watchdog after Clacton byelection win – UK politics live
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So, “Friday” did mean “today”.
“Farage Turns Nasty After Humiliating Clacton ‘Win’ ( 37 minute video)
.https://youtube.com/live/NdJCtQUJmoo
@birgerjohansson:
And my first thought on seeing that headline was basically ‘Farage Turns Nasty’ implies that he wasn’t already nasty. As the lawyers would say, “Objection! Assumes facts not in evidence!”
#8 @ Jenora Feuer
QFT
Actually, and unfortunately, he received slightly more votes than in the 2024 general election (when of course, other non-parody candidates were standing). The turnout was quite high for a byelection. Since the byelection, Reform spokespeople have made a number of deliberately controversial announcements, presumably hoping to “move on” from the dodgy financial dealings that led to the Parliamentary Commissioner’s investigation in the first place, but I’d bet there is more to come out about the latter, and the investigation may reveal it -- and could lead to yet another byelection (if he’s suspended from the Commons for more than 10 days (I think), then 10% of the local electorate (which is fewer than voted for the Count) can demand one, in which Farage would again be able to take part. He would probably win yet again, but this is not certain, as his far-right rival, Rupert Lowe (Lowe by name, low by nature, former “Reform UK” MP, now representing his own “Restore Britain” party aiming to out-bigot Farage) would put up a candidate.
Further to my #10, and specifically:
Two firms with links to Reform UK donors may be investigated for illegally operating as gambling firms without a licence. It’s particularly interesting that this and some of the other press reports about dodgy dealings appeared in the Sunday Times, a Murdoch newspaper. Since Murdoch could easily bury such stories, it seems he’s at least hedging his bets on Farage, although whther he’d favour the Tories, or Rupert Lowe’s “Restore Britain” outfit as an alternative, is unclear.