UK’s Nigel Farage has won the Clacton by-election, which was boycotted by major Westminster parties.
Reform UK leader has regained his parliamentary seat, besting his main challenger Count Binface in a by-election he triggered by resigning his post last month.
A poll from Survation on Monday put Farage on 75% of the vote, with Binface on 20%.
The Reform’s party lead already declared himself the winner while the votes were still being counted.
As reported by the Guardian, Farage received 22,239 votes in the Clacton by-election compared with his nearest competitor, Count Binface won 9,455 votes (26.93%).
The turnout was 44% but the result was not as seismic for Farage as some polls had predicted.
Farage and Binface both topped a long list of joke candidates, independents and members of fringe political parties.
He has seen off Count Binface to win the Clacton byelection in a contest boycotted by every other major political party.
The United Kingdom’s main political parties boycotted the election, creating the embarrassing face-off for Farage who had sought to use the election to boost his standing after allegations of financial impropriety.
The Reform UK leader in July triggered the byelection in an attempt to shake off a deepening scandal over a £5m gift he received from the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.
In earlier remarks as votes rolled in, Farage claimed a “convincing, overwhelming win”.
“I called this by-election because I wanted the people of Clacton, the voters of this constituency to be my judge, not the mainstream media in Britain,” he said, adding that Clacton voters had “stuck two fingers up to the entire political establishment”.
As reported, he did not attend the official vote count early Friday and cancelled a planned victory speech.
Reform UK leader does not appear for the result, despite beating nearest challenger, Count Binface, in byelection he caused amid deepening gift scandal.
Farage quit his seat in parliament in July during an investigation into whether he failed to report a gift from a crypto billionaire overseas, triggering the by-election he took part in.
“I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all,” said Farage of the allegations at the time.
Many view Farage, a right-wing populist who was a vocal campaigner for Brexit, as a prospective candidate for prime minister. He has pledged to crack down on migration, including using the British navy to intercept and return asylum seekers arriving by boat.
After standing in multiple British parliamentary elections since 1994, Farage was elected to the Commons as the member for Clacton in 2024.
He won the seat with a majority of 8,400, taking 46.2% of the vote. The Conservatives came second and Labour third.
