Nigel Farage defeats Count Binface to reclaim UK parliamentary seat

The Reform UK leader received 22,239 votes in the Clacton-by-election" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="181911" data-entity-type="event">Clacton by-election, compared with 9,455 for Binface.Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has regained his parliamentary seat, besting his main challenger Count Binface in a by-election he triggered by resigning his post last month.Farage received 22,239 votes in the Clacton-by-election" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="181911" data-entity-type="event">Clacton by-election compared with 9,455 for serial joke candidate Binface, who wears a rubbish can on his head and calls himself an “intergalactic space warrior”. The United Kingdom’s main political parties boycotted the election, creating the embarrassing face-off for Farage who had sought to use the election to boost his standing after allegations of financial impropriety.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Nigel Farage vows to deport foreign criminals from UK prisonslist 2 of 3UK by-election sees record 34 candidates as Farage seeks returnlist 3 of 3‘Not Nigel Farage’: Who is Count Binface, contesting as MP for Clacton, UK?end of listFarage did not attend the official vote count early Friday and cancelled a planned victory speech, the BBC reported.In earlier remarks as votes rolled in, Farage claimed a “convincing, overwhelming win”.“I called this by-election because I wanted the people of Clacton, the voters of this constituency to be my judge, not the mainstream media in Britain,” he said, adding that Clacton voters had “stuck two fingers up to the entire political establishment”.Binface, whose campaign promises included putting a cap on croissant prices and moving the restroom hand dryer of a local pub, told Al Jazeera “there’s more than one way to win.”Listing former British premiers he has challenged in previous elections, he said: “You guys are fixated on winning numerically, but … where’s Theresa May, where’s Rishi Sunak, where’s Boris Johnson?”The 9,455 votes in Clacton for Binface, who has run in six elections since 2019, were his best-ever electoral result.