Farage faces man in a bin, 'Loonies' and an Australian in bizarre by-election

Nigel Farage faces Count Binface and 32 others in Britain's strangest by-election All eyes in the UK are on the seaside electorate of Clacton, where one of the strangest by-elections in recent British history is about to begin. Brexit architect Nigel Farage is facing an "intergalactic space warrior", an Australian software engineer and 31 other unusual candidates after Britain's major parties decided to sit this one out. As the leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party, Farage is seeking to return to parliament after quitting his seat in July, amid scrutiny of his personal finances. But his main rival is Count Binface — a comedian in a bin-shaped helmet who is promising cheaper bus fares, 99-pence ice creams, the construction of at least one affordable home, and even a referendum on whether Pluto should be a planet again. A recent poll suggests the 5,900-year-old space warrior could win as much as 20 per cent of the vote, enough to put a sizeable dent in Farage's share. "Never underestimate the power of the bin," the Count has warned the ABC. So who exactly is standing against the far-right Farage, and what would happen if, against all odds, British democracy elected a man in a bin instead? Here's what you need to know ahead of the election. When is the Clacton by-election? Clacton voters will go to the polls on Thursday, August 13. Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm, local time. That is 4pm Thursday to 7am Friday, AEST. The winner will become the MP for the Essex seaside electorate of Clacton, which includes Clacton-on-Sea, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze. What triggered it? Nigel Farage triggered the by-election himself, when he quit as the MP for Clacton on July 7. His dramatic resignation followed a parliamentary investigation into his finances, including an undeclared gift worth 5 million pounds ($9.31 million) from a cryptocurrency billionaire. Under House of Commons rules, the probe has been paused during the by-election but will automatically resume if Farage is re-elected to parliament. Farage has denied wrongdoing, and framed his decision to recontest the seat as a chance for voters to decide whether they still support him. He has cast the contest as a battle between "the people" and the establishment, saying constituents "should be the judges of my actions". But Britain's major parties have decided not to play along. Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens have all declined to field candidates, describing the contest as a "political stunt". That has left a conspicuous gap on the ballot paper, which has since been filled by a parade of conventional independents, fringe party candidates and outright political satirists. The ballot paper is … how long? With a record-breaking 34 candidates on the ballot paper, the list is about 90 centimetres long. The previous record for a UK parliamentary election was 26 candidates, set at the 2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election. Who is standing in the election? There is, of course, Nigel Farage, standing for Reform UK as the only mainstream party candidate in the race. He took the seat in 2024 with 46 per cent of the vote, and the majority of Reform voters in the seat say they will back him again, according to a recent Survation poll for Mandate Research. Awareness of the controversy that triggered the by-election is high, but Clacton voters are divided over whether Farage did anything wrong. According to the Survation poll, 35 per cent say Farage acted within the rules, while 25 per cent say he acted wrongfully. Eight per cent say both or neither, while 32 per cent don't know. Then there is Count Binface, standing for the Count Binface Party. He's a political persona that has already gone up against former Conservative prime ministers Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Theresa May. Behind the bin helmet is comedian Jonathan David Harvey, who is legally standing for election under the Count Binface name. And this time, Binface is offering Clacton voters a surprisingly extensive platform. His manifesto promises to cap bus fares at 1.99 pounds and the price of 99 Flake ice creams at 99 pence, regenerate Walton Pier and build "at least one" affordable home. He also wants oil and gas companies to pay for solar panels for everyone, a referendum on whether Pluto should regain its planet status, and for MPs who resign in the middle of a parliamentary term to be barred from contesting the resulting by-election. Plus, in another pointed reference to the circumstances that triggered this election, one pledge states: "I will not accept 5 million-pound gifts from crypto billionaires (on Earth)." Then there are the 32 other candidates, who range from conventional independents to fringe parties and outright political satirists. Among them are three candidates from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, namely Howling Laud Hope, Baron Von Thunderclap and Nick the Incredible Flying Brick. The satirical group, which also stood candidates in the Makerfield by-election in June, is running on a series of deliberately nonsensical policies. It pledges to "replace all red tape with Sellotape", give every voter the chance to be prime minister for 15 minutes during their lifetime, and "ban any by-election that has been created purely for political self-interest". There is also former actor and right-wing Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox, independents Attieh Fard, Andy Erlam and Nick Pelas, and Melbourne-born candidate Daniel Pocock. According to his website, Pocock is a software engineer who moved to Europe after graduating and worked for companies like Barclays Capital, Thomson Reuters, and UBS. "Should people make a tactical vote for a man with a bin on his head or a strategic vote for the great-grandson of an ANZAC hero?" he writes on his website. Pocock says he was motivated to nominate himself for Clacton by the prospect of "novelty candidates". "If the Essex Lion was to appear on the ballot paper, I suspect it would have an equally good chance of winning. I have yet to see a single report about the real, day-to-day issues facing residents of the district," he said. "In a parody of this situation, I have chosen the codename Pocock-on-Sea for the operation to unleash an Australian upon London's Establishment." Some of the other candidates have names that sound like they were generated by a particularly chaotic political-name generator, including Woke Trump Carrzee and Joseph 77. But despite the crowded field, the election is widely considered to be a two-horse race between Farage and Count Binface. The Survation poll of 502 Clacton adults put Farage well ahead at 73 per cent of the vote, but gave Count Binface an unexpectedly strong 20 per cent. The space warrior has lost every election he has contested, with the most votes he has ever received being 308. When the ABC recently asked Farage whether he was confident he could beat Count Binface, he laughed and said: "I should hope so." What if Binface actually wins? If Count Binface achieves the seemingly impossible, he would actually become an MP. There is no novelty-candidate exemption in Britain's electoral system: if he wins the most votes, the man behind the bin helmet becomes the member for Clacton. There is, however, one small problem. Binface's costume is unlikely to pass parliament's dress rules. MPs are expected to wear business-like attire, and parliamentary guidance says members should not, in principle, have their faces covered when speaking or voting. So the sight of an intergalactic warrior in a dustbin helmet taking his seat in the House of Commons is probably not on the cards. He would have to enter parliament as the comedian Jonathan Harvey — at least if he wants to follow the rules. Still, if he did win, the costume might be the least remarkable part of the story. Farage would lose the seat he deliberately vacated in the hope of securing a fresh mandate, while Count Binface would go from political satirist to elected legislator. That would make this very strange by-election even stranger.