Farage vs Count Binface: how UK hard-right leader’s poll gambit could backfire

British anti-immigrant politician Nigel Farage faces the embarrassing prospect of going head-to-head with perennial joke candidate Count Binface in a by-election after he decided to quit parliament.

His surprise move threatened to backfire on Wednesday after other heavyweight parties confirmed they would not contest the vote for Farage’s seat in southeast England.

Count Binface, a self-described “intergalactic space warrior”, is the only other person to have said so far that they would run.

In a televised address on Tuesday, the leader of the hard-right Reform UK party said he was resigning as the member of parliament for Clacton, the constituency he has represented since July 2024.

The shock announcement came as Farage is the subject of a parliamentary probe over the non-disclosure of a £5 million (US$6.6 million) donation from Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.

The donation was made shortly before Farage was elected an MP and was revealed earlier this year by The Guardian daily, which reported on Tuesday that bankers raised concern with the National Crime Agency that it may have been laundered money.