Britain’s capital of seaside political madness has struck again. When it comes to electoral drama, forget Westminster’s polished hallways and stiff upper lips. If you want a decent democratic farce, look no further than Clacton-on-Sea.
Nigel Farage won the by-election with 22,239 votes (62.8 per cent of the vote), extending his majority to 12,784 – up from 8,405 at the 2024 general election. However, that’s where any sense of political reality collapses into chaos.
Surging into a staggering second was intergalactic space warrior Count Binface, who polled a whopping 9,455 votes (26.9 per cent).
The sci-fi comedy candidate obliterated the rest of the field, causing 32 of the record-breaking 34 candidates to lose their cash deposits as turnout slumped to 44.4 per cent.
When the results were finally declared shortly after 6am on Friday, the victorious Reform UK leader was nowhere to be seen. Instead Farage was holding court at an all-night “Farage-fest” party at a nearby airfield.
Fuming to supporters, he said: “I’m not scared of these people, far from it. But I’m damned if I’m going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory…and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies, and I will not sadly be attending the count.”
Between mystery security scares, three foot ballot papers, bikini-clad campaign launches and airborne bin art, the Essex resort has firmly cemented its crown as the wild west of British politics. Here are the seven weirdest moments from Clacton’s legendary election saga.
1. The £5 Million Crypto Gift & The Resignation ‘Stunt’
Why was there even a by-election in the first place? Because Farage triggered it himself in the most bizarre fashion imaginable.
Facing heat from Parliament’s standards watchdog over an undeclared £5million gift from a Thailand-based crypto billionaire, Farage decided to hit the ejector seat.
Rather than answer the watchdog’s questions, he abruptly quit as MP, automatically pausing the investigation, and immediately re-entered the race to “let the voters judge him”.
Critics branded it a taxpayer-funded stunt to dodge scrutiny, but Farage just grinned, grabbed a pint and demanded a rematch against a space alien.
2. The Bikini-Clad ‘Sex Positive’ Pier Declaration
Just when locals thought Clacton politics couldn’t get any wilder, candidate Marcus White, leader of the “Everyone is God” party, launched his bid on Clacton pier alongside his partner, Rosie Morrell, who wore a Union Jack bikini.
Declaring they were “unashamedly a sex positive party,” White promoted free body expression while Morrell, who aspires to be Britain’s first elected sex worker MP, urged voters to be proud in their own skin.
Social media blew up instantly, with amused voters quipping they’d “rather vote for these than Reform.”
3. The Water Bosses ‘River Dip’ Manifesto
Forget boring tax cuts or road repairs. Binface’s flagship campaign policy for Clacton saw him pledge to force the CEOs of privatised water companies to go for an obligatory swim in local British rivers.
His argument was that if they’re pumping sewage into the sea, they should be forced to take a paddle and see how they like it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, polling showed it was one of the most popular policies in the constituency.
4. Pilot Draws ‘Bin-Shaped’ Flight Path Above Clacton
Just days before voters hit the polls, one rogue pilot took the political fight to 5,000 feet. Taking off from Earls Colne airfield in a private light aircraft, the mysterious aviator spent an hour and a half over the Clacton coast zig-zagging wildly through the clouds.
Flightradar24 maps revealed the airborne stunt had traced a massive, perfect bin-shaped flightpath right over the town, sending a loud, high-flying message of support for Count Binface against Farage.
5. The Three-Foot-Long Record-Breaking Ballot Paper
When a staggering 34 candidates entered the race, election officials faced an administrative nightmare. The ballot paper ended up measuring nearly a metre long (nearly three foot).
Unrolling longer than the average human arm, it officially set the record for the longest voting slip in UK parliamentary history.
Panicked council staff had to invent origami-level folding techniques just to squeeze the giant scrolls into postal envelopes, while voters inside the polling booths struggled to locate their candidate of choice.
6. Binface vs Sky News: Round Two
After previously gatecrashing veteran Sky News reporter Jon Craig live on air during the Makerfield count, the trash-talk continued in Clacton.
As Farage claimed an early victory, Binface seized the Sky News mic to inform viewers that the whole saga was nowhere near over.
Branding the election a “two-legged match like the Carabao Cup or the Cold War,” the silver-helmeted alien declared that even a 12 per cent vote share would have meant one-in-eight Clacton locals preferred a bin-shaped space warrior to Farage.
As it turned out, he actually did better than that and his 26.9 per cent share of the vote is thought to be the highest ever for a novelty candidate.
7. Farage’s Great Count No-Show & Police ‘Threat’ Mystery
In a strange twist, election winner Nigel Farage boycotted his own count, becoming the first victorious candidate to skip their own declaration since IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in 1981.
Hiding out at “Farage Fest,” he claimed police warned him of a “credible threat” and an organised plot to “demean and humiliate” him on stage. But his story appeared to unravel when Essex Police confirmed there were no security incidents.
The force added: “The decision of candidates to attend or not attend the election count is a decision for individuals and their security teams, our role is to make sure our policing operation is sufficiently robust to ensure the safety of all.”
So what happens now he’s re-elected? Farage’s resignation gambit only hit the pause button, not delete. Now that he’s back on the Commons benches, the Standards Commissioner’s probe immediately resumes.
If the watchdog finds against him and Parliament hands down a suspension of 10 or more sitting days, it could trigger a recall petition, forcing Clacton voters right back to the polls for a second by-election in a matter of months.