Nigel Farage was on Wednesday granted his wish to hold a by-election in his Clacton seat, but he was ridiculed in the House of Commons and will now face a battle for votes with comedy candidate Count Binface.
UK chancellor Rachel Reeves said she had agreed to use her powers under Britain’s arcane electoral law to allow the Reform UK leader to go ahead with the byelection, rejecting some calls that she block the contest.
“It is a farce and a desperate distraction, and the people of Clacton deserve better,” Reeves said. “But if he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won’t stop him.”
Senior Reform figures insisted Farage’s move had not backfired, arguing that the refusal of all the main rival parties to put up a candidate in the contest showed they were “running scared”.
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But there was undisguised glee among Farage’s opponents over what they regard as a major tactical mistake, and some Reform insiders fear that their leader will be left embarrassed.
One Reform insider said it was “game over” for Farage. “In an attempt to reaffirm his position in British politics, Nigel is going to have a byelection against a bin,” they said.
Farage announced on Tuesday that he would stand down as an MP to trigger what he described as a “people versus the establishment” byelection following criticism of his failure to register gifts and benefits he received from wealthy benefactors.
But David Lammy, standing in for Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, ridiculed Farage’s claim that he was taking a stand against a powerful elite.
“The City trader, Putin admiring, professional politician who is pals with crypto billionaires versus Count Binface,” Lammy said to cheers from MPs. Binface is 4/1 at William Hill to win the seat, second behind Farage on 1/6.
Rob Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester, said “never say never” about Binface winning the election outright, though he said there was likely a “ceiling on the appeal of novelty candidates”.
Ford said there could yet be a “white knight” candidate that steps into the ring to fight Farage, pointing to the 1997 byelection when former BBC journalist Martin Bell fought against Conservative MP Neil Hamilton as a protest against corruption and won a huge majority.
Laurence Fox, an anti-Islam former actor, has also said he will run in Clacton.
Reform’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf claimed on Wednesday that other party leaders were “running scared”, telling the BBC that “the only reason they are choosing not to field a candidate is because they know in their hearts that they have virtually no chance of beating [Farage]”.
Farage is already facing a parliamentary standards investigation over his failure to declare a £5 million gift he received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in 2024, weeks before he announced he would take over leadership of Reform and stand as an MP in Clacton.
He could yet face a second. Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary standards commissioner, has also been urged to examine whether Farage should have declared benefits – including private security, staff and accommodation – provided to him by his long-time aide George Cottrell before the 2024 general election.
Reform has denied he has breached any Commons rules in both cases.
If Farage is found to have broken Commons rules, he could be forced to step down as an MP again, triggering another byelection in Clacton, which opposition parties say they would contest. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
