British politics has a long-cherished reputation for attracting the weird and wonderful. But in a pantheon of colourful characters, Count Binface, a man wearing a rubbish bin over his head, is stealing the show. The self-described "intergalactic space warrior" from the fictional planet Sigma IX takes on hardline anti-immigrant politician Nigel Farage on Thursday in the Clacton by-election, triggered when the Reform UK leader resigned in a shock move. With Farage running again for his seat, none of the UK's mainstream political parties is fielding candidates, having dismissed the move as a stunt designed to stall a parliamentary inquiry into his finances. That has left the door open to Count Binface, and a host of other independent and parody candidates. While polls give Farage a clear victory with more than 70 percent of the vote, Binface, the alter ego of comedian and comedy writer Jon Harvey, is grabbing all the attention and could win as much as 20 percent. During almost a decade as the joke candidate in UK politics, Binface has fully embraced the absurd. He arrives at election counts wearing a metallic dustbin-shaped helmet, a silver cape and silver-and-black armour and brandishing his razor-sharp, deadpan sense of humour. His manifestos mix smart political satire with comedic promises to cap croissant prices, improve WiFi on UK trains and conscript people using speakerphones on public transport. "In the UK anybody, literally anybody, is free to stand in an election, no matter how idiotic the get-up", he told AFP ahead of the 2024 London mayoral elections. The British political system "fosters the eccentricity, the wonderment and the humour of politics", he added. Democracy matters Harvey, 46, is a University of Oxford Classics graduate who has written for popular satirical television programmes including "The Thick of It" and "Have I Got News for You".