Nigel Farage beat trash-can wearing comic candidate Count Binface, regaining a seat in Parliament he quit a month ago to trigger the widely mocked special election.
Farage received 22,239 votes and Binface, who finished in second, won nearly 9500 votes. The election on Friday (local time), held on the hottest day of the year so far, had turnout of 44%.
Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party who some see as a possible next prime minister, abruptly quit his seat in July amid an investigation into whether he failed to report a 5 million pound (NZ$11.5 million) gift from a crypto billionaire overseas.
He said he would run for the open seat to prove he had voters’ support.
Binface, a serial candidate who has challenged prime ministers past and present, became the default challenger in a field of 34 candidates after the major parties boycotted the campaign as a political stunt by Farage.
Farage declared victory in the early morning and did not attend the official declaration where he would have had to stand alongside the other candidates, many of them running joke campaigns.
Farage said he didn’t attend because police told him about an “organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result,” though police disputed that.
“We have a proportionate and robust policing operation to ensure the safety and security of all participants in the count,” an Essex police spokesperson said.
Binface ran on a wacky platform that included a vow to “cut your taxes, and raise everyone else’s,” build one affordable home and nationalise singer Adele.
The victory by Farage showed his strong support in the Clacton area on the east coast of England but it doesn’t ensure he’ll be able to keep the seat.
An investigation by a parliamentary watchdog that was suspended when he stepped down is likely to resume. It could lead to Farage being forced out and result in yet another election.
If Farage is found to have breached Parliament’s rules and forced to run again, other parties, including the governing Labour Party and the main opposition Conservative Party, are likely to enter the contest to fill the seat.
Farage, who was a major player in getting Britain to vote to leave the European Union a decade ago, has had strong polling nationally though his numbers have slipped during months of scrutiny of his finances.
Parliament’s standards watchdog is investigating an undeclared donation to Farage in 2024 from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Farage says he didn’t need to declare the money because it was a personal gift he used to fund his security and came before he was elected.
However, newly elected lawmakers must declare gifts worth more than 300 pounds (NZ$680) received in the previous year if they are related to political activities.
When he stood down on July 7, he described the scrutiny as an “establishment hit job” and a media-driven “witch-hunt".
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