Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage is set to walk away with the election in Clacton-on-Sea, where he is running without competition from any other mainstream party.
His only opposition comes from the costumed, other-worldly joke candidate known as Count Binface — the alter ego of British comedian Jon Harvey. Dressed in a spacesuit and trashcan-inspired helmet, Binface is polling around 20%. It’s a respectable showing for a self-described “alien” and “space warrior,” but he has little chance of overcoming his rival, who is polling at 73%.
The count released a manifesto at the end of last month, outlining a two-point platform including promises to “cut your taxes, and raise everyone else’s” and “build at least one affordable house.” Several of the manifesto points were thinly veiled digs at Farage, such as Binface’s promise to “spend more time in Clacton-on-Sea than in Washington D.C.”
Binface also pledged not to “accept £5 million gifts from crypto-billionaires (on Earth)” — a reference to the financial scandal that got his Reform rival in this position to begin with.
Clacton-on-Sea is hardly Binface’s first foray into electoral politics. He previously stood for office in Makerfield in June against Andy Burnham, who defeated him and went on to become the prime minister last month. Before that, he ran in the 2019 and 2024 general elections, as well as two London mayoral elections.
Binface is not particularly unique in his shtick. When the count stood against Burnham in the Makerfield election in June, he was also running against ecological activist Robert Pownall, who dressed in a janky fox costume and carried a piece of paper that read “Protect British Wildlife.”
The United Kingdom has, for decades, been replete with joke candidates seeking to turn democratic elections into comic spectacles.
British musician Screaming Lord Sutch founded the Official Monster Raving Loony Party in 1982 as a vehicle for protest voters. Sutch had been standing for office since the 1960’s with a revolving door of intentionally insane policy proposals. The OMRLP continues to exist and has platformed a rogues gallery of joke candidates ranging from the Mad Cow-Girl to Lord Toby Jug.
“Howling Laud Hope,” the comedic persona of OMRLP party leader Alan Hope, is the only member of the party ever to win an election after running unopposed for Ashburton Town Council in 1987.
In 2024, businessman Steve Endacott debuted the country’s first candidate powered by artificial intelligence — “AI Steve.” Endacott pushed the AI persona in that year’s Brighton Pavilion election as the “only candidate who can have a conversation with 45,000 constituents at the same time and form policies based on what’s just been discussed.”
“I’m gutted after working my ‘chips off’ talking to 20,000 people over the last two weeks, but I must look to the future and hope I’m making a contribution to democracy,” the artificial intelligence candidate said in its resignation statement.
Some joke candidates carry an air of tragedy in their antics, such as the recurring appearance of Elmo in elections across the British Isles.
Bobby Smith, a candidate who has run against some of the nation’s most high-profile politicians in a knock-off costume of the fuzzy Sesame Street character, considers himself a campaigner for fathers’ rights. He chose the gimmick by combining the first two letters of both his daughters’ names, spelling “Elmo,” and uses elections as an opportunity to voice his frustration at not being allowed to see his children.
“I want to expose the family courts, and I want my children to know that I never, never, gave up,” Smith said in 2016.
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Among Count Binface’s most high-profile endorsements was former Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
When the premier was standing for his last session of Prime Minister’s Questions in mid-July, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch asked whether he believed the country deserved a televised debate between Farage and Binface.
Starmer said his advice to those in Clacton-on-Sea was to “put your vote in the bin.”