Politics
Farage Wins Clacton
— 3 mins read
The Reform UK leader increased his majority to 12,784 but skipped the count
Nigel Farage has won the Clacton by-election with 63% of the vote. Within hours of the declaration, the parliamentary standards watchdog reopened an investigation into a £5 million gift from Reform UK's biggest donor.
Farage took 22,239 votes in the poll on 13 August 2026, according to official parliamentary results. That was 1,014 more than he won at the 2024 general election. His majority rose from 8,405 to 12,784, BBC News reported.
Turnout was 44%. That was down from around 58% at the general election but high for a by-election.
Farage triggered the contest himself. He resigned the seat in July 2026 while under scrutiny over the gift, forcing a by-election with a record 34 candidates. The major parties largely stayed away, leaving him to face mostly independents and novelty candidates.
The £5 million gift and the reopened investigation
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg, reopened his investigation into Farage as soon as the result made him an MP again, The Guardian reported. The inquiry, first opened in May 2026, concerns whether Farage failed to declare a £5 million personal gift from Christopher Harborne, according to BBC News.
Harborne is a Thailand-based crypto and aviation fuel investor. He is Reform UK's largest donor, having given the party more than £15 million since 2025 on top of earlier donations to the Brexit Party, according to Channel 4 News reporting. Reform receives no public funding and relies on donations, with Harborne providing a large share of its income.
I'm damned if I'm going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory, and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies.
Farage says he was under 'no obligation' to declare the money. The gift was handed over in 2024, before he became an MP, and Reform maintains the rules at the time did not require a declaration.
Binface takes second place and keeps his deposit
Count Binface, the comedy candidate whose real name is Jonathan David Harvey, finished second with 9,455 votes, or 26.9%, BBC News reported. It was the first time he has kept his £500 deposit. Every other candidate apart from Farage lost theirs.
Reuters described the result as the strongest performance by a comedy candidate at a British by-election. With the main parties absent, his vote drew in much of the anti-Farage support in the constituency.
The count Farage skipped
Farage did not attend the declaration. He was the first winning candidate to miss a by-election count since IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in 1981, who was in prison at the time.
Reform said Essex Police had warned of a credible threat and an organised campaign to disrupt the result, The Independent reported. Essex Police said it did not advise Farage or any candidate to stay away, and that a robust security operation was in place. The two accounts remain in direct conflict.
Farage said: 'I'm damned if I'm going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory, a ringing endorsement of all that I've tried to fight for, and you've tried to fight for, and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies, and I will not sadly be attending the count.'
The standards investigation is ongoing and no date has been set for its conclusion.
