Nigel Farage has comfortably won the Clacton by-election, returning to Parliament with a majority of 12,784 over Count Binface.
The Reform UK leader received 22,239 votes, representing 63.34% of all valid ballots cast. Count Binface finished second with 9,455 votes, or 26.93%.
Turnout was 44.37% in an unusual contest which featured 34 candidates—the largest field ever recorded in a UK parliamentary election.
Clacton by-election result
- Nigel Farage, Reform UK: 22,239 votes
- Count Binface, Count Binface Party: 9,455 votes
- John Stevens, Rejoin EU: 492 votes
- Tony Francis, Independent: 432 votes
- Pamela Walford, Independent: 371 votes
- Laurence Fox, Reclaim Party: 347 votes
The remaining 28 candidates each received fewer than 300 votes. Farage and Count Binface were the only candidates to reach the 5% threshold required to retain their £500 deposits.
The full declaration published by Tendring District Council recorded 35,111 valid votes.
An expected victory
The outcome was never seriously in doubt after Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Greens decided not to contest the election.
Farage increased his total from the 21,225 votes he received at the 2024 general election, while his vote share rose from 46.2% to 63.34%. Those percentages are not directly comparable, however, because his principal mainstream opponents from 2024 were absent from the by-election ballot.
Count Binface consequently became the principal alternative for voters opposed to Farage, collecting more than one vote in four and recording by far the strongest result of the satirical candidate’s electoral career.
Farage absent from declaration
Farage did not attend the official declaration after announcing his expected victory to supporters at a separate Reform UK event.
Reform said Essex Police had advised him not to attend because of a credible threat. Essex Police said it had a proportionate and robust operation to protect everybody at the count, and it was subsequently reported that the force had not advised any candidate to stay away.
After the result, Farage posted a photograph from the event on X and wrote:
‘The result in Clacton speaks for itself.’
Farage returns to Parliament
The result restores Farage as Clacton’s MP following the by-election he triggered by resigning his seat in July.
His decisive local victory settles the immediate question of who represents the constituency. It does not determine the separate questions surrounding the £5 million gift from Christopher Harborne or any resumed consideration of the matter under parliamentary standards procedures.
For a full account of why the by-election was called and the record list of candidates, read our earlier explainer: When Is the Clacton By-Election?