Reform UK leader 'in real trouble' against Count Binface

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• Hacker News
• Full title: Nigel Farage live: Reform UK leader 'in real trouble' against Count Binface as Clacton by-election stunt flops
  by jjgreen
• So for context. Nigel Farage (Populist right wing UK politician, leader of the Reform party) has been accused of not following parliamentary rules around disclosure of donations - which are designed to ensure transparency of decision making and potential influence. Basically, he received £5M from a crypto billionaire. He claims that it was (a) a personal donation (not needing to be declared according to the rules), (b) before he was in parliament, and (c) he was not involved in politics. His opponents say that personal donation rules are meant for family members, and that while he might not have been in parliament he was President of the Reform party at the time.

  So the whole thing is in front of the Parliamentary Standards Ombudsman who will report to the Parliamentary Standards Committee. That committee can recommend a penalty of a suspension from parliament (which is then voted on by the House). If he is suspended for more than 10 days, then a recall petition can be launched - and if that gets more than 10% of the registered voters in the constituency (which it would), then there is a by-election to decide whether he is fit to serve.

  So Farage has announced that he is resigning his seat (causing a by-election), in which he will stand. he claims that he is accountable only to the voters in his constituency (Clacton). All the other major parties have announced that they will not field candidates against him, claiming he is trying to avoid / pre-empt a suspension and a recall by-election. The only other announced candidate is Count Binface - a 'joke' candidate.

  Interestingly, it also turns out that at least theoretically (and with a precedant from 1842) his resignation could be blocked. You cannot actually resign your parliamentary seat between elections - you can only be disqualified. And due to UK history, the main reason for disqualification is holding an appointment from the Crown (i.e. the King, not the more general sense of "the Crown" as the government). So if you want to resign your seat, you apply for one of a couple of reserved crown appointments - the usual one is Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds. That disqualifies you, and then there is a by-election. Now it turns out that these appointments are controlled by the Treasury, which is part of the Government (which of course is just the majority faction in parliament). There is a case from 1842 of the Treasury refusing to make a Crown appointment to stop a by-election. It has been suggested that parliament could vote to stop the appointment (and therefore the by-election), at least until the Parliamentary Standards Committee report has come out.

  by steve_gh
• Its deeply offensive to call 'Count Binface' a joke, he a more serious and more electable candidate and a better candidate for PM then Farage. Please keep your right wing extremest views to yourself, Farage is the joke candidate.
  by panick21_
• you forgot: (d) claimed his phone was hacked
  by rasz
• > he claims that he is accountable only to the voters in his constituency

  To add to this,

  * Mr Farage's logic seems to be that if If he is accused of a financial crime then he can pick the jury who will try him, finding the most sympathetic audience. And if this jury goes his way, all future financial crimes can be answered with "the people have spoken!"

  A pro-sleaze campaign, a vote to specifically endorse ongoing corruption is not very common. And not strictly speaking admissible in a court of law.

  It's gamesmanship to avoid due process. The prosecutors should not play along. Kudos to the political parties who are not playing along.

  * Mr Farage made this move shortly before this was reported: "Farage’s £5m gift reported to UK crime agency over money laundering concerns" , and he knew that was coming, as "Farage was given a deadline of 1pm on Tuesday to respond .. He gave a video address at 2pm"

  https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/07/revealed-fa...

  * Mr Farage in this speech claimed that he was "most attacked politician in the country". It's true that he had a milkshake thrown at him. Meanwhile, 2 sitting MPs have been murdered, Jo Cox and David Amiss, among other serious incidents such as arson.

  https://news.sky.com/story/victoria-thomas-bowen-avoid-jail-...

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Cox

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Amess

  * It is quite possible that Mr Farage is in fact taking money by unfriendly foreign governments, to influence UK politics to our detriment. Is there a word for that?

  by SideburnsOfDoom
• So The Waldo Moment [0]?

  [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waldo_Moment

  by joshstrange
• I mean, I think the problem is that the UK is post-Waldo-Moment already, tbh.
  by rsynnott
• If you can get access, a hilarious interview with Count Binface on BBC Radio 4's Today program at around 8.50am.
  by jjgreen
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002ymyw , skip to 2:54:00
  by 1317
• Is it this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGOmzQbRT_E
  by SahAssar
• I dont care about UK politics, but for me Farage will always be the guy that caused Brexit, then immediately moved to France.

  Besides, Mick Herron believes Nigel will soon die in an accident and he has been right about Farage matters before.

  Binface on the other hand would for obvious reasons survive being hit on the head by 15L of paint. So he might get my vote for being the more resilient candidate.

  by throwa356262
• Farage is backed by US interests. Which makes the "rule Britannia" nonsense very funny.

  People in the Netherlands are infamously divided but they circle the wagons when a foreign country starts meddling in internal politics. England has lost all dignity.

  by expedition32
• It’s fun and games, but you have to bear in mind that joke candidates never expect to win.

  It’s entirely possible that every anti-Farage voter could coalesce behind him. Upon winning, he would have his name and face be publicly known. He would attract a huge amount of (global, even) media attention. He would suddenly have a serious job with real responsibilities. And he would have the unbridled rage of everyone in the UK who has decided that 100 years of the Tory/Labour cycle has run its course and meaningful change is needed. To give an indication of the electoral weather, Reform UK has led the national opinion polls for more than a year.

  I’m not sure he has the balls for all that, but we will see.

  by hn_throw2025
• There is this place called America, anyway...
  by bamboozled
• Gosh, why does this sound familiar to me?
  by deflator
• > And he would have the unbridled rage of everyone in the UK who has decided that 100 years of the Tory/Labour cycle has run its course and meaningful change is needed.

  And a salary!

  by dofm
• > a serious job with real responsibilities.

  this is an election for members of parliament - its not like the 650 of them all do stuff most days

  by blitzar
• To be honest, a novelty candidate couldn't possibly do less as a constituency MP than Farage and might plausibly turn up to Parliament more often. Would certainly liven up televised debates.

  I don't think someone that runs for office is really that bothered that people who voted for other parties don't like them, particularly not people so unworldly they think a guy currently running away from an investigation involving him concealing Posh George (author of the semi-autobiographical How To Launder Money, whose mum once dated the King) paying for his social media manager and a Thai crypto billionaire and Tory donor paying him £5m as a 'personal gift' represents the voice of the ordinary person against the establishment.

  by notahacker
• > Upon winning, he would have his name and face be publicly known.

  His name is already public, it’s on Wikipedia

  by mmarq
• > He would suddenly have a serious job with real responsibilities.

  Backbench independent MP is not a serious job with real responsibilities; really most backbenchers in general barely do anything. Farage himself is fairly notorious for hardly ever even showing up.

  Buckethead's real identity isn't a secret.

  by rsynnott
• It wouldn't be the first time a novelty candidate has won an election.

  H'Angus the Monkey[0] won the Hartlepool mayoral election in 2002 and the man in the costume served three terms before the mayoralty was abolished in 2013.

  [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%27Angus

  by M2Ys4U
• >And he would have the unbridled rage of everyone in the UK who has decided that 100 years of the Tory/Labour cycle has run its course and meaningful change is needed

  Binface is a better protest candidate than Farage for this purpose. Reform is worse than the status quo, hard as that can be to believe.

  >He would suddenly have a serious job with real responsibilities

  It would probably be worth reminding Farage of this. He has one of the worst attendance records as both an MP and an MEP, and indeed seems to have spent a lot of his time as MP outside the UK.

  by rcxdude