23AUG

Clacton by-election set for 13 August

1 min read

19:09UTC

Farage will restand in the Clacton by-election on 13 August against a field the major parties have vacated, with Count Binface his most prominent challenger.

← Back to Reform loses three wards, wins Clacton Jump to analysis ↓

PoliticsDeveloping

Key takeaway

The Clacton by-election is set for 13 August, with the major parties standing aside.

Nigel Farage will restand in the Clacton by-election set for 13 August, the Essex seat he resigned to force the contest. Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, The Greens and Restore Britain have all declined to stand, leaving the satirical candidate Count Binface as his most prominent declared challenger.⁠¹

An Ipsos poll fielded in early July put Binface on 33% against Farage's 21%, a national head-to-head preference measure rather than Clacton voting intention.⁠² Roughly 40,000 Clacton electors, not the national sample, decide the seat.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Nigel Farage gave up his Clacton seat on 8 July and will fight to win it back in a by-election on 13 August. A poll making headlines put the satirical candidate Count Binface ahead of him, 33% to 21%. That figure is worth reading carefully: it's not a poll of Clacton voters asking who they'll actually vote for. It's a national survey asking people across the whole country to pick between just those two names, which tends to flatter a novelty candidate. Nobody has yet polled Clacton itself.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Ipsos's 33%-21% figure is a forced national head-to-head preference question, asking a UK-wide sample to pick between only two named individuals, not a constituency-level voting-intention poll of Clacton electors; national name-recognition polls of this kind systematically favour novelty candidates because respondents who would never vote for either in their own seat still have to pick one.

No pollster has yet fielded constituency-level voting intention in Clacton itself, the actual figure that will decide the 13 August result, so the widely shared 33-21 split describes national sentiment about Farage rather than any measured level of support for Count Binface's candidacy there.

Sources:Ipsos

Mentions:Nigel Farage →Count Binface →Ipsos →Clacton →Essex →Parliament →Restore Britain →Liberal Democrats →Conservative Party →Green Party →

First Reported In

Update #12 · The finance bill Reform outran is back

Ipsos· 15 Jul 2026

Read original →

Causes and effects

This Event

Clacton by-election set for 13 August

The by-election decides whether Farage returns to Parliament, which would also reopen the paused standards inquiry.

Led to

Farage to quit Clacton and refight it

The by-election follows directly from Farage's announcement he would resign Clacton.

Occurred 7 Jul 2026

Read story →

Every party but Binface boycotts Farage

The contest is shaped by the major parties' earlier decision not to stand candidates.

Occurred 7 Jul 2026

Read story →

Clacton draws a record 34 candidates

Farage's resignation from Clacton on 8 July created the by-election that drew a record 34 nominations.

Occurred 17 Jul 2026

Read story →

Clacton's ballot paper splits the right four ways

The 13 August by-election date set on 8 July is the poll the nomination paper is for.

Occurred 17 Jul 2026

Read story →

Farage wins Clacton back by 12,784 votes

Farage's confirmation that he would restand set up the 13 August contest that produced this result.

Occurred 14 Aug 2026

Read story →

Different Perspectives

Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)

Ap Iorwerth presented six priorities to the Senedd on 22 September without numeric targets or a named partner party, promising to work across the chamber where there is common ground. He says his government will be judged on results.

Michael Marra / Scottish Labour

Marra won the leadership on 19 September, and three days later his 17 MSPs backed Swinney's right-to-decide motion once their child-poverty amendment was written in. He says Scottish Labour's task is to tell voters what it stands for.

Andy Burnham / Labour Party

Burnham told conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour's next manifesto will commit to changing the electoral system, and invited every party into a National Commission on Electoral Reform. He has not named a replacement system, and no chair or remit has been published.

Conservative Party (frontbench peers and Kemi Badenoch)

Conservative frontbench peers argued against retrospective rules at the Lords Second Reading on 14 September, a position that protects gifts made before any cap. Kemi Badenoch rejected Burnham's electoral reform commission on 2 October, accusing him of using it to entrench the left.

Reform UK

Reform denied wrongdoing after the Channel 4 News programme, called the sting a hoax by climate activists and said it would cooperate with the Metropolitan Police. In the same month it announced £36m gifts from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne.

Steff Aquarone / Liberal Democrats (North Norfolk)

Aquarone told Rayner in the Commons on 7 September that North Norfolk District Council had spent money preparing for a reorganisation the Government has now withdrawn. He puts the cost of the cancelled merger on districts in the four areas.