Farage began a political farce. Binface missed his chance

August 14, 2026 — 3:37pm

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London: Nigel Farage will no doubt see his return to the UK parliament as a victory for common sense after the voters of Clacton endorsed him at a byelection he forced upon them.

In fact, the outcome is a victory for English farce. And that is not only because the Reform UK leader ended up in a battle for votes with a man who wears a garbage bin on his head.

There were few surprises when the results were declared at about 6am on Friday local time (3pm AEST) after a very long count because the ballot paper had 34 candidates – ranging from members of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party to the Everyone is God Party and more than a dozen little-known independents.

Farage won with 22,239 votes. His main rival, Count Binface, secured 9455 votes.

Turnout was lower than at the general election just over two years ago. Back then, 58.7 per cent cast ballots. This time, 44.4 per cent did so. Voting is not compulsory in the UK, and many voters were clearly unimpressed with the need for this election.

Farage won a slightly higher number of votes than the 21,225 he received last time. So, given the lower turnout, he gained a higher percentage of the vote. Last time, it was 46 per cent. This time, it is 62.7 per cent, although it will take time to see all the results because of the sheer number of candidates.

That is a win, of course. But Farage boycotted the vote count and avoided the traditional moment when candidates appear on stage together – when he might have ended up standing alongside Binface. He claimed police warned of a campaign to disrupt the........

© The Age