Meet the UK's political candidate Count Binface taking on other politicians
British politics has a long-cherished reputation for attracting the weird and wonderful, but Count Binface, a man wearing a rubbish bin over his head, is stealing the show.
The self-described "intergalactic space warrior" from the fictional planet Sigma IX takes on hardline anti-immigration politician Nigel Farage on Thursday in the Clacton by-election, triggered when the Reform UK leader resigned in a shock move.
With Farage running again for his seat, none of the UK's mainstream political parties are fielding candidates, having dismissed the move as a stunt designed to stall a parliamentary inquiry into his finances.
That has left the door open to Count Binface and a host of other independent and parody candidates.
While polls give Farage a clear victory with more than 70% of the vote, Binface, the alter ego of comedian and comedy writer Jon Harvey, is grabbing all the attention and could win as much as 20%.
During almost a decade as a joke candidate in UK politics, Binface has fully embraced the absurd.
He arrives at election counts wearing a metallic, dustbin-shaped helmet, a silver cape and silver-and-black armour, while brandishing his razor-sharp, deadpan sense of humour.
His manifestos mix smart political satire with comedic promises to cap croissant prices, improve WiFi on UK trains and conscript people who use speakerphones on public transport.
"In the UK, anybody, literally anybody, is free to stand in an election, no matter how idiotic the get-up," he told AFP ahead of the 2024 London mayoral elections.
The British political system "fosters the eccentricity, the wonderment and the humour of politics", he added.
Here it is. My manifesto for the 2026 Clacton By-Election. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Join me, clean up Clacton and let's make 13th August Bin Day! #VoteBinface #VoteyMcVoteface #YesWeTinCan pic.twitter.com/rNMB5xszH8
— Count Binface (@CountBinface) July 27, 2026
Democracy matters
Harvey, 46, is a University of Oxford Classics graduate who has written for popular satirical television programmes, including 'The Thick of It' and 'Have I Got News for You'.
In a recent appearance on 'The Rest is Politics' podcast, he quoted from Homer's 'Odyssey' in fluent Homeric Greek.
He first attracted attention in 2017 as Lord Buckethead, when he challenged then-prime minister Theresa May in the general election.
A copyright dispute later prompted a rebranding, leading to the birth of Count Binface in 2018.
Since then, Binface has contested elections against former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, as well as London mayor Sadiq Khan, consistently drawing thousands of votes and extensive media coverage.
In the 2021 London mayoral race, he won 24,775 first-preference ballots, one per cent of the vote, and netted a similar tally at the next vote in 2024, easily beating the far-right Britain First party.
Khan, who won re-election in 2024, paid tribute to Binface for standing, joking that the count had made him "work hard for it".
Unlike some novelty candidates, Harvey insists there is a serious point to his activism.
His policy platform often lampoons mainstream politics while drawing on genuine public anger and frustration, and advocating for democracy.
"Behind every one of these campaigns is a simple argument... that a ballot is worth casting even when you know how the night ends," he writes on his website.
'Unity candidate'
On Monday, he posted an "interplanetary address" on X, which played on a screen attached to a balloon floating at an altitude of 100,000 feet (30,500 metres) above Earth, thanks to a specialist company.
"Join me. Let's take out the trash and make 13 August bin day!" he says.
You may have seen I broadcast a message to planet Earth from the edge of space. I thought it was equally important to speak to deep space about you and your lovely little planet. But I thought humans might like to see it too, so here it is. #Clacton #VoteBinface pic.twitter.com/Bg1eECNOzv
— Count Binface (@CountBinface) August 11, 2026
Other manifesto pledges have included forcing water company bosses to swim in polluted rivers and banning loud snacks in cinemas.
"I pledge to build at least one affordable house," Binface joked in his Clacton manifesto.
He skewers Farage, vowing not to take £5 million in gifts from crypto billionaires and to spend more time in Clacton than Washington. He also presents himself as a "unity candidate".
The looming battle between Farage and a candidate with the tongue-in-cheek slogan "Make Earth great again" has triggered huge international media interest.
And as Britain's political landscape fragments, Binface has become more than a comic sideshow.
For Farage, "while it's embarrassing for him to win against a dustbin and not the mainstream parties, he will return as MP," said Catherine Barnard, a political expert at Cambridge University.
But she added that there "are some indications that Nigel Farage is worried that he will not win as comprehensively as he wants to".
Even former prime minister Keir Starmer had one last dig at Farage in Parliament, saying: "My advice to everyone is put your vote in the bin."
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Image: AFP