Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform U.K., Britain’s populist right-wing party, won a special election on Thursday that he initiated when he resigned amid a parliamentary investigation into possible financial impropriety.
As expected, Mr. Farage easily defeated dozens of fringe and novelty candidates, including Count Binface, who wears a trash-can-themed costume. None of Britain’s other major parties participated in the race, calling it a political stunt engineered by the Reform leader to distract from the investigation.
Mr. Farage, who did not attend the official announcement of the result in a departure from political tradition in Britain, received 22,239 votes. Count Binface, a character played by Jon Harvey, 46, a writer and comedian, received 9,455 votes.
Turnout was slightly higher than expected, with 35,401 voters — 44 percent of those eligible — participating in the election, the BBC said.
The Reform leader is under investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner for failing to declare a 5 million pound gift, about $6.7 million, that he received in the weeks before the 2024 general election. Mr. Farage has given varying explanations for the gift, which he received from Christopher Harborne, a British crypto-billionaire based in Thailand. At one point Mr. Farage said it was a reward for Brexit, while at other times he has said it was to pay for his personal security.
Last month, Mr. Farage abruptly resigned the seat, which he had held since 2024, and immediately announced he would run again in the ensuing by-election, saying he wanted a new mandate from his constituents in Clacton, a coastal area in Essex, England, to show that his voters did not care about the allegations.
“The people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” he said in his resignation speech in July. “This will be a people-versus-the-establishment by-election.”
Mr. Farage referred in the speech to the standards investigation into the Harborne gift, and also said that “yet another standards investigation is underway.” Days before, The Sunday Times of London had reported that one of Mr. Farage’s close aides, George Cottrell, had provided undisclosed benefits to Mr. Farage, including security, social media employees and accommodation. Mr. Farage has since said he did not need to report the benefits because they were received before his election to Parliament.
The parliamentary code of conduct says that lawmakers must register any benefits received in the 12 months before they are elected, unless they could be considered “purely personal gifts.” It adds: “Both the possible motive of the giver and the use to which the gift is to be put should be considered. If there is any doubt, the benefit should be registered.”
Mr. Farage is an ally of President Trump who has long warned of an “invasion” of migrants and railed against “the establishment.” In May, Reform won almost 1,500 seats on municipal councils. But its overall share of the vote was only about 26 percent, down from more than 30 percent the previous year.
Several recent polls have shown support for the party falling to under 25 percent and Labour taking the lead. The polls have shown a continued decline as the accusations about improper disclosure of financial support have increased.
Reform officials were always very confident, however, that Mr. Farage would recapture his seat in Clacton, which voted by a large margin for Brexit, his signature cause. The last time he ran there, during the 2024 general election, he won with 46.2 percent of the vote, and the Conservative Party candidate came second with 27.9 percent.
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