UK Parties Refuse to Name Candidates, Accuse Farage of Staging ‘Fake By-election’

The Reform leader has defended triggering a by-election in his Clacton seat, where he intends to run, with only fringe candidates putting themselves forward.

Britain's Reform UK leader Nigel Farage leaves Milbank Tower after he said he'll quit his Parliament seat and seek reelection in London on July 7, 2026. Thomas Krych/AP Photo

Main parties in the UK have refused to put forward a candidate in a by-election triggered by the resignation of Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party, which they criticized as a “stunt.”

On Tuesday, Farage unexpectedly triggered the by-election for his own parliamentary seat in the east of England, after coming under increasing scrutiny over undeclared donations from supporters. 

Under investigation from Parliament, the 62-year-old was facing a possible suspension from parliament, which could lead to a by-election if it were for a period of 10 days or longer and his constituents demanded his replacement through a recall petition.

Farage, a longtime ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, took a pre-emptive strike by resigning as a Member of Parliament (MP) for his seat in Clacton.

The governing Labour Party, plus the other main opposition parties—the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, and the Greens—all said following the Reform leader’s announcement that they will not put forward a candidate, amid accusations that Farage is staging a “circus” that is unfair on his constituents. Farage has denied the allegations.

This means Farage will likely only face opponents from fringe parties, independents, or novelty characters—including a BBC comedian campaigning as a character named Count Binface, who wears a trash can on his head.

Farage gave a speech in London on Tuesday in which he characterized the forthcoming by-election as “the people versus the establishment” and said he was putting his future in the hands of the voters in Clapton. 

Reform has topped nationwide opinion polls for more than a year, while Labour has seen its popularity plummet since winning the 2024 general election by a landslide.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation after his own party moved against him, following disastrous results for Labour in May’s local elections. Former Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham is expected to become Labour’s next leader—and therefore the prime minister—and is currently the only candidate to put himself forward.

‘Desperate Stunt,’ Says Starmer

Starmer, speaking from the NATO summit in Turkey, said on July 7. “This is a desperate stunt by Farage. It’s obvious why he is doing it—he is up to his neck in sleaze. Politics should be about improving the lives of millions of people, not about personal gain, not about hiding dodgy donations, and I think the public will see this for exactly what it is.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch branded the upcoming by-election “fake,” and said her party would stand a candidate in the “real” contest, which she said would happen in due course. She told LBC Radio that in her view, Farage “didn’t think it through” and did not “read the rules” of parliament and believed he could stop the investigation into his finances by standing down.

“This is a fake by-election, and he and Count Binface can duke it out,” she said.

Independent candidate Count Binface speaks to a journalist as he arrives for the vote count in Britain's general election at the Richmond and Northallerton count center in Northallerton, England, on July 5, 2024. Temilade Adelaja/Pool via AP, file

Rupert Lowe, a former Reform MP who founded the Restore Britain party after falling out with Farage and being expelled from the party for allegations of bullying, which he denied, said his party would not put up a candidate in this by-election, but would wait for “the second one, held later this year, when the investigations into Farage’s finances conclude as we all suspect they will.”

He added, in a July 7 post on X, “The people of Clacton do not need a media circus descending on their town over a busy tourist season because their MP has made a series of bad decisions.” 

Actor-turned-activist Laurence Fox, who founded his own party, Reclaim, said on X that he would run in the by-election, saying, “Clacton is in my backyard.”

Fox praised Farage in a number of posts, and took aim at the level of media attention being given to Count Binface, writing, “They want it to be about a binface against a man who stood up for you.” 

Piers Corbyn, the brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, announced on July 9 that he will also contest the election.

Count Binface is a silver cape-clad character created by comedian Jonathan Harvey, ​who has run against ⁠high-profile politicians over the last decade in order to poke fun at them while, he says, celebrating democracy. He has stood against former prime ministers Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and, most recently, the expected next prime minister, Burnham.

The character has recently been given mainstream media airtime in the UK, including by the BBC’s flagship Breakfast and Newsnight programs. 

Harvey is a graduate of Oxford University who has worked as a scriptwriter for a number of hit satirical television programs, including the BBC’s long-running Have I Got News for You. He offers quirky, offbeat policies of local interest rather than a serious manifesto.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage poses with an ice cream after casting his vote in the local elections in Walton-on-the-Naze in the constituency of Clacton in Essex, England, on May 7, 2026. Chris Radburn/AFP via Getty Images

Socially Deprived Seaside Town

Clacton-on-Sea is a socially deprived seaside town in the county of Essex, with almost half of working-age ​people there classed as economically inactive—one of ​the highest rates in Britain.

In the July 2024 national election, Reform won Clacton with a 46 percent share of the vote, comfortably ahead of the second-place Conservative Party, on 28 percent.

Reform has just 8 MPs out of 650 in the House of Commons, but growing discontent over immigration, both legal and illegal, and a cost-of-living crisis have greatly shifted voter intentions away from both Labour and the Conservatives, with the party winning more than 1,450 council seats across the UK in the local elections in May. 

Reform achieved almost 15 percent of the popular vote in the 2024 election, but the British system of “first past the post” does not result in proportional representation in Parliament. 

Laurence Fox, leader of the Reclaim party, attends a Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Royal Artillery War Memorial in Hyde Park Corner, in London on Nov. 8, 2020. Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images

Investigation a ‘Political Tool’

Farage said in Tuesday’s speech that the parliamentary ​standards committee investigating him is being used as a “political tool” by those who feared the electoral threat he posed. 

“It seems to me that the establishment have now decided that they can’t beat us fairly, so they’ve chosen to use foul means,” Farage said in his speech.

The Reform leader, who, as the leader of the UK Independence Party, was one of the leading campaigners for the Brexit vote in 2016, denied any wrongdoing over the donation under scrutiny or over his personal wealth.

Farage said the £5 million cryptocurrency donation he received from British-Thai billionaire businessman Christopher Harborne was “the equivalent of a lottery win” which he is using to pay for his personal security.

Parliamentary rules state that newly elected MPs have to declare gifts or benefits received in the 12 months before their election that relate to their “parliamentary or political activities,” but those that are “purely personal” are exempt.

Farage is also facing scrutiny over his financial relationship with George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto-gambling entrepreneur and close political aide who served a U.S. prison sentence for fraud.

U.S. President Donald Trump listens as Nigel Farage (R) speaks during a Make America Great Again rally at Phoenix Goodyear Airport on Oct. 28, 2020, in Goodyear, Ariz. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Surge to Reform

Polls show that Reform remains ⁠the most popular ​party in Britain. However, a YouGov poll on Wednesday showed Farage was seen unfavorably by 65 percent of Britons, and favorably by 25 percent. He was seen as “decisive” by half of respondents, while just 16 percent considered him trustworthy, including just 54 percent of Reform UK voters.

Farage told the BBC on Wednesday, “The media are judging me to be a dishonest person, so it is only fair to say to the voters, ‘you judge’.”

He accused the other parties of being “scared” to face him and said their unwillingness to take part did not make it a “fake” contest.

“They call it a stunt. It’s not a stunt, because real voters will have a vote for an MP,” he said.

Farage only became a British lawmaker two years ago, finally being elected to Parliament after seven failed attempts with UKIP and the Brexit Party.

Reform is proposing a date of Aug. 6 for the contest to take place, with the request having to be approved by MPs.