Nigel Farage is trying to dodge scrutiny over his undeclared millions by playing the outsider again. Reform’s poll ratings are sliding, he’s just lost a string of byelections and he’s now facing a Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards inquiry into a £5m ‘gift’ from Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne that he somehow forgot to declare.
His answer? Resign his Clacton seat and relaunch himself as “the people versus the establishment” – announced in a stage-managed video, with no journalists in the room. Of course, this desperate piece of theatre has nothing whatsoever to do with the money question. Yeah, right. Farage’s back is against the wall and he’s looking for an edge to save his political skin.
There’s just one problem with his comeback tour – nobody’s turning up to fight him. Every main party has signalled that it won’t stand in Clacton, leaving the field to independent ‘comedy’ candidate Count Binface, who’s declared himself a unity candidate against Farage. “Nigel Farage says he wants The People versus the Establishment,” Binface said. “So be it. Leave him to me.”
Already, some on the left are warming to a Binface candidacy. Socialist Green and nurse Harry Eccles told The Left Lane: “Farage has decided to make a mockery of the electorate to try and avoid scrutiny and it’s only fair we treat this charade for what it is. Political parties need to ignore his silly game and leave Count Binface to take out the rubbish. Binface is a unity candidate we can all get behind. If Farage wins, he returns to parliament to continue answering questions about his dodgy finances. If he loses to a bin, even better.”
Now you might laugh at this farcical situation, but how incredible would it be if Binface gets elected and consigns Farage to the rubbish bin of history? All the parties should stand down for Binface.
This isn’t the same as an electoral boycott, which I’m generally wary of – elections are a platform and the left should be using them to make its case, not sitting them out. What I’m describing is narrower: strategic non-contestation, where parties who’d normally compete voluntarily stand aside for one election, in one seat, because beating a specific candidate matters more than winning that seat outright.
Tatton in 1997 – apologies to younger readers, this was a long time ago – is the model. Labour and the Liberal Democrats both withdrew their candidates so independent Martin Bell could get a clear run at the sitting Conservative MP Neil Hamilton, who was mired in the ‘cash for questions’ scandal. Bell won and it helped seal the Tories’ fate in the general election that followed.
But strategic non-contestation only works as a stopgap. It stops the far right winning a seat, it doesn’t stop the conditions that let Farage thrive in the first place – hollowed-out public services, a media that treats billionaires’ ‘gifts’ as background noise and a political class with no answer to either.
Another useful example is the ‘Monkey Mascot’, Stuart Drummond who ran for mayor in Hartlepool in the early 2000s. A joke candidacy became serious and he was even re-elected. There is something in the English psyche that embraces humour to puncture pomposity and I think it could even work again with Farage.
It may not seem ‘serious’ politics, but Clacton maybe needs not just Farage to be beaten, but beaten by a clown candidate. The ‘proper’ parties will only legitimise Farage anyway. Despite the Reform leader’s arrogant posturing, this desperate move indicates a weakness on Farage’s part – and it’s a weakness the left should recognise and think about how to exploit.
Binface can beat Farage in Clacton. He can’t rebuild the NHS, restore trade union power, or reverse a decade of austerity. Only an organised left can do that – and a clown candidate is a symptom of the vacuum, not a substitute for filling it. In the meantime, though, we can enjoy the farce unfold and hopefully send Farage to the dustbin.
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