NIGEL Farage has declared victory in the Clacton by-election.
A record 34 candidates stood after the Reform UK leader quit as MP amid questions over donations he received from a crypto billionaire.
The mainstream parties refused to stand candidates which meant satirical candidate Count Binface emerged as Farage’s main challenger.
Speaking to GB News at “Farage Fest”, an event for Reform UK supporters organised in the constituency, he declared victory shortly after midnight.
Asked whether he had won, Farage responded: “Yes. Fairly convincingly. I beat the establishment candidate.”
He then added: “Look, this is an overwhelming endorsement of me. I have had enough of being judged by mainstream media, being called a criminal.
“Do you know, if I made one sin, if I haven’t filled in a piece of paper, I’ve broken no law, I’ve broken no tax law, I’ve taken no public money, I don’t even own a motorhome.
“Maybe I haven’t filled in a piece of paper. I’m confident that I’m right, we’ll see where we go. I put this to the people of Clacton, said ‘you decide my future’, and tonight they will.”
Speaking in a speech in the early hours of the morning, Farage again claimed victory and said he had secured more votes than when he won in the seat in the 2024 general election.
The results have not been officially confirmed.
Farage said: “The verdict is now in, and it is a convincing, overwhelming win with more votes than we got in the General Election of 2024.
“In doing so we have beaten the candidate for the ‘uni-party’. Yes there were Liberal Democrats, Labour, Conservative canvassers out canvassing for Count Binface. What an upside-down world it is, where Count Binface is now the candidate of the establishment.”
He added: “Today the voters in Clacton have stuck up two fingers to the entire political establishment.”
Farage also said he will not be attending the count in the town, due to police advice about a “campaign to disrupt… the result”.
“I’m sad to say that after 33 years of being a candidate in active politics, I’ve been advised tonight by Essex Police that there is an organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result that will take place in a few hours’ time," he said.
“Once again it shows you the sheer intolerance, the sheer loss of fundamental democratic principles that those that went before us, fought in world wars, to fight for and preserve.”
Farage added: “I’m not scared of these people, far from it. But 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.”
Meanwhile, speaking to Sky News, Count Binface referred to the possibility of a second by-election in the seat if Farage is found to have broken Parliamentary rules.
He said: “You just said at the beginning of this interview that Nigel Farage is claiming victory, but in that case it’s going to be a two-legged match like the Carabao Cup or the Cold War, because we’re going to be back again in a few weeks aren’t we? We’ll see what happens then.”
He added: “Even if I got to 12%, so one-in-eight people in Clacton would rather vote for a space warrior shaped like a bin than Nigel Farage, that would be interesting wouldn’t it?
“If it goes higher and higher and higher, it says more about what the actual population thinks about Nigel Farage than maybe this election.”
Provision figures showed turnout is approximately 43%. This would mean it is about 15% down on the 2024 general election turnout.
Before quitting Westminster, Farage was being investigated by the parliamentary standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg over a £5 million gift from cryptocurrency tycoon Christopher Harborne, which he received before taking his seat in the Commons.
Under Commons rules, new MPs are required to register any gifts worth more than £300 they received in the previous 12 months, except where the gift “could not be reasonably thought by others” to relate to their political activities.
That investigation was paused when Farage resigned his seat but will resume if he wins the by-election – as bookmakers have made him the firm favourite to do.
