Count Binface Leads Ipsos Poll Ahead of Clacton Byelection, Farage Lags
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
An Ipsos poll shows comedy candidate Count Binface ahead of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in the Clacton byelection, while Farage’s popularity has fallen.
An Ipsos poll of British adults found that 33% would prefer comedy candidate Count Binface to win the Clacton byelection, compared with 21% who would back Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. The poll also indicated that 45% of respondents either did not know who they would support or wanted neither candidate to win.
Farage was rated as the second-most unpopular political leader, with only 26% of those surveyed expressing satisfaction with his performance, while 63% were dissatisfied. In voting intention questions, Reform UK was at 26%, Labour at 24% and the Conservatives at 18%. By contrast, a separate Ipsos survey in June 2025 showed Reform at 34% and Labour at 25%.
Analysts cite several factors for Reform’s decline. The party faces criticism over undisclosed donations, including a £5 million gift to Farage from Bitcoin investor Christopher Harborne that was not reported to the parliamentary watchdog.
Voters also perceive Reform as aligned with the establishment rather than as an anti-establishment alternative; 36% said the party is on the side of the establishment, compared with lower percentages for the main parties.
Farage’s decision to resign as MP and trigger the byelection has drawn mixed reactions, with 16% approving and 54% believing he should have left parliament altogether. A majority (74%) support a parliamentary standards investigation into the undeclared gift.
The withdrawal of mainstream parties from the contest has left Reform facing candidates described as “joke parties,” including Count Binface and the Official Monster Raving Loony party’s Howling Laud Hope. While Count Binface previously received 308 votes in a general-election constituency, his performance in Clacton could be stronger, though a win remains unlikely.