When voters in the English seaside constituency of Clacton went to the polls on Thursday, they ostensibly had more choice than in any other election in British history.
Thirty-four candidates stood in this by-election, the equivalent of a US special election, making the ballot paper 3 feet long. But almost all the country’s half-dozen major political parties declined to participate, with only the populist hard-right Reform UK party fielding a candidate – its leader Nigel Farage.
Farage was ultimately re-elected by a substantial margin, winning 22,239 votes to Binface’s creditable 9,455. But this election, rather than helping to solve his problems as he perhaps hoped, has only added to them.
The country’s chief anti-immigrant activist and Brexit architect, Farage was already the member of parliament (MP) for Clacton but resigned from parliament – triggering the by-election – after facing unprecedented scrutiny over his finances. His main opposition? A self-described intergalactic space warrior dressed as a trash can, called Count Binface, and 32 other fringe or novelty candidates.
The special election has become an object of ridicule, derided as a “circus” by commentators, while the claims over Reform’s finances refuse to go away. At the same time, Farage faces both a split in his natural coalition of voters and a more formidable opponent in Britain’s new center-left prime minister, Andy Burnham. Such headwinds are unfamiliar for Reform, which had previously been in the ascendancy, leading national opinion polls and enjoying historic gains in local elections.
