CLACTON-ON-SEA, England — The bar is relatively low to run for a seat in the United Kingdom's parliament. Candidates have to pay a £500 (about $675) deposit — which they get back if they win at least 5% of the vote. So on election night, candidates from mainstream parties often find themselves lined up onstage next to satirical ones.
For example, among those often running against prime ministers and mayors are candidates from the Monster Raving Looney Party, which vows to paint half the country's gray squirrels red and place yellow rubber ducks in any puddles deeper than three inches. There's another candidate who dresses up as a fox. There's Lord Buckethead, who wears a Darth Vader-like costume, and another candidate who officially registered his name as "None of the Above."
But the most famous is Count Binface. He describes himself as an "intergalactic space warrior, leader of the recyclons from the planet Sigma IX." He's got a YouTube channel of spoof music videos, including one of him crooning "This election is rubbish" to the tune of Whitney Houston's 1987 hit "I Wanna Dance with Somebody."
He wears a black bodysuit, silver cape and a metal trash can on his head — even in the current U.K. heat wave.
"Oh it's hot in here! Partly because of my armor, and partly because you're cooking the planet with human-made climate change. You idiots!" Binface tells NPR, speaking through a slit in the front of his bin as he sits in an overheated TV studio in central London, on a day of interviews with media from Japan, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany.
His real name is Jon Harvey, a 46-year-old comedian who studied classics at Oxford University and has written for several British TV shows. But he only goes on-record in character.
"Jon Harvey? Never heard of him!" Binface says. "But he sounds very intelligent."
Binface's latest race is against a controversial MP
Binface is running this Thursday, Aug. 13, against Nigel Farage, the far-right, anti-immigrant Brexit campaigner, who won a seat in Parliament two years ago. It was Farage's eighth try. He represents Clacton-on-Sea, an economically ailing town in southeast England famous for its seaside pier lined with amusement park rides. This summer, Farage called a special election to re-run for his own seat, claiming the establishment is out to get him.
"It's a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment, to frankly tell them where to go!" Farage told a news conference last month.
Rival parties call it a stunt designed to distract from how he's under investigation for failing to declare millions in donations from crypto billionaires. Farage says the donations were private, and that he wasn't required to declare them. Mainstream parties have nevertheless refused to field candidates in this local race, leaving Binface as Farage's lead competitor.
"I'm the only fresh thing on the menu! You're all sick of these politicians," Binface tells NPR. British voters, he says, "need something different, a little bit of secret sauce, the colonel's secret blend of herbs and spices!"
Also, critically, he says: "I would not accept 5-million-pound donations from crypto billionaires on your planet!"
That message resonates with some voters.
Binface's campaign promises
If elected, Binface promises to build at least one affordable house, nationalize the singer Adele, "cut your taxes and raise everyone else's" and cap the price of croissants.
He also pledges to move the hand dryer in the men's restroom of a certain pub to what he considers a more sensible location.
"Do you want to be using the urinal and have another human blasting your bits with insanely hot air?" he asks. "You don't want your nether regions to be burned to smithereens, especially with your healthcare, mate!"
Binface is used to getting lots of laughs, but only a handful of votes — until now.
Pollsters predict he'll get more votes in Thursday's Clacton election than ever before. One poll even shows that if the vote were nationwide, he would win.
But a Binface victory remains unlikely, and even if it did happen, it could trigger a constitutional crisis: Parliamentary rules forbid lawmakers from wearing anything — including trash bins — on their heads, inside the Palace of Westminster.
What people and polls say about Binface's chances
While that one poll shows British voters overall favor Binface over Farage, only voters in Clacton are eligible to vote in this special election. And a poll of them puts Farage well ahead.
"I think we all know probably Nigel is gonna win again, and [Binface] just makes people smile. They think it's ridiculous!" says Helen Matthews, 63, a retired banker who lives in a suburb of Clacton.
Her husband Kevin Matthews, 68, a retired operations manager, chimes in: "Oh poor sod! He's dressed up, look at him, he's got a bin on his head!"
Both say they'll vote for Farage. They spoke to NPR while sipping cool drinks on the Clacton boardwalk, with a Beatles cover band playing on a stage behind them.
Others say they're seriously considering casting their ballots for Binface — as a protest vote.
"Maybe Count Binface will do more for Clacton!" says Cameron Jangdhari, 43, who is unemployed and spoke to NPR while eating at a McDonald's near Clacton's pier. "What he's actually showing though is how laughable British politics has become."
Also laughing were two pollsters, when NPR called them for comment about this caped candidate.
"Look," says pollster John Curtice, "if you don't like Nigel Farage, you have to decide what you're going to do! A lot of people may just stay home."
Curtice, a professor of politics at Scotland's University of Strathclyde, predicts Farage will win — but that the race will end up being embarrassing for him. His Reform Party's popularity has slumped in recent months.
"He said this is a campaign against the establishment," says another pollster, Robert Hayward, who is also a Conservative Party member of the House of Lords. "What Farage wanted to do is dominate the media."
Instead, the media has been dominated by a fake politician wearing a garbage can on his head.
The great, the good — or just an MP
"The risk for [Farage] is not about winning," Hayward says. "The risk for him is that the turnout will be low."
It's not just Binface; at least 32 other candidates have also paid deposits to run in the Clacton race. The vast majority of them are joke candidates. On Thursday night, Farage will have to line up next to them — many in costumes — as vote counts are read out.
Binface says he can't wait.
"The U.K. is the only country on your planet where you can stand on that stage on election night, with the great and the good — or just a member of parliament — and you hold them to account," he says. "Literally, in my case! And you get the wonders of democracy. It's a great leveler. It's beautiful!"
Binface acknowledges he's here to prove a point. But this time he's also hoping to win enough votes to get his deposit back.
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