Count Binface takes 26.9% of the vote in the Clacton by-election

Count Binface, the satirical candidate who campaigns with a silver rubbish bin over his head, took 26.9% of the vote in the Clacton by-election, by far the best result of his electoral career. He finished second with 9,455 votes.

What happened in Clacton

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage re-won the seat on the Essex coast with 22,239 votes, or 63.3% of those cast. The by-election was triggered by Farage's own resignation and decision to run again, a move that prompted a mass boycott by the other main UK parties and left the field unusually thin. Counting took place on Friday morning.

"I promised to be a local champion for Clacton and I thought to hear the verdict of the Clactonites was the least I could do," Binface told BBC Breakfast afterwards.

The man inside the bin

Behind the costume is the comedian Jon Harvey, an Oxford graduate and comedy writer who has written for the BBC satires The Thick of It and Have I Got News For You. He first stood for election in 2017 in Maidenhead against then prime minister Theresa May, wearing a bin and calling himself Lord Buckethead, a character borrowed from a Star Wars parody film. He won 249 votes, viral fame and an appearance on John Oliver's Last Week Tonight — plus a legal dispute with another Lord Buckethead that he described at the time as "an unpleasant battle on the planet Copyright".

He later switched characters, announcing himself as the leader of the Recyclons from planet Sigma IX, and in 2019 stood in Uxbridge against Boris Johnson, winning 69 votes. In 2024 he took on Rishi Sunak and received 308 votes, then his best result. In June 2026 he faced Andy Burnham in the Makerfield by-election, taking 95 votes against Burnham's 24,927 — and a warm handshake from the winner.

A British tradition, with a price

Novelty candidates are an established feature of British elections. The Monster Raving Loony Party's founder, the rock musician Screaming Lord Sutch, first stood in a by-election in the 1960s and contested more than 40 elections in his trademark top hat and gold lamé suit; a different Lord Buckethead appeared on ballots in 1987 and 1992, and comedian Al Murray's pub landlord stood against Farage in 2015. In 2024 the Monster Raving Loony candidate at Sunak's count, Sir Archibald Stanton, took 99 votes, or 0.2% of the vote.

Standing is cheap enough: any candidate over 18 who gathers ten signatures and a £500 deposit may run. The deposit is returned only on reaching 5% of the vote, and until this week Binface had lost his every time. British counts also require every candidate to stand on the same stage to hear the result — which is why a man in a bin has repeatedly shared a platform with prime ministers. The stated aims of such campaigns rarely change: to mock power, puncture the pomposity of political elites and give voters a way to register a protest.