With just four days to go until Clacton goes to the polls in Nigel Farage’s by-election, one pilot has gone to extreme lengths to apparently endorse the Reform leader’s biggest rival.
Since all the major parties pulled out of the vote in the hours after Farage announced his resignation last month, Count Binface has emerged as the unlikely top choice for his critics in the constituency.
The ‘independent space warrior’ – who has previously run against Boris Johnson, Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham – set out his manifesto two weeks ago.
And it appears to have one him at least one big fan, with a pilot drawing an enormous bin in the sky off Clacton’s coast.
The route traced by the Beagle B121 plane stretches around eight miles north to south, in a patch of sky south-east of Felixstow.
According to FlightRadar24, the mystery pilot flew from Henstridge Airfield in Somerset to Earls Colne in Essex before embarking on his artistic flight yesterday.
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They then returned to the original airfield the same day.
Voters in the Essex seaside constituency will decide on Thursday whether they want to re-elect Farage as their MP.
The Reform leader faces a record-breaking 33 rival candidates – the most of any by-election in modern British history.
One candidate, independent Abi Hookway, announcedshe was withdrawing from the contest on her Instagram feed last month but her name will remain on the ballot.
In a speech announcing his resignation and intention to run in the resulting by-election, Farage said he wanted to make the contest a ‘people versus the establishment’ fight.
The withdrawal of the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Restore Britain appeared to take him by surprise.
A poll last week found Count Binface could get around 20% of the vote in the by-election.
Yesterday, candidate Kai Stephens – who is running for the British Democrats, which developed from the BNP – was condemned in an online post from Clacton Pier after he brought pyrotechnics to the attraction.
The statement said: ‘Bringing pyrotechnics onto the Pier, with an apparent intention to ignite them, was extremely irresponsible, particularly given the prolonged period of dry weather and the Pier’s timber decking.
‘The potential consequences of such actions, including the risk of fire and serious harm to members of the public, are self-evident.
‘Our security team promptly requested that the individuals leave the premises. This request was met with an unacceptable level of verbal abuse and language wholly inappropriate for a family attraction.’
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