UK’s Nigel Farage regains parliamentary seat, fights off Binface challenge

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage won his self-triggered by-election in southern England on Friday, but saw his strategy to silence critics backfire when his main rival, Count Binface, a comedian dressed as a trash can, took more than a quarter of the vote.In a highly unusual move, Farage, one of Britain’s leading Brexit campaigners, did not turn up at the vote count in the southern English seaside resort of Clacton because, he said, ‌the police had advised him there was a campaign to disrupt the result. He also cancelled a victory speech planned for later on Friday.“I am damned if I am going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory … and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies,” Farage told supporters at a party before the result was announced.Then-London mayoral candidate Count Binface (left) and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Count Binface, a figure created by comedian Jonathan Harvey, has become a fixture of fun at British elections. Photo: AFPThe election was triggered after Farage resigned from parliament last month to seek a renewed mandate from voters in what he described as a war against an establishment bent on discrediting him with accusations about his finances.