Farage vs Count Binface: Has Clacton by-election changed UK politics? | The World | ABC News — Transcript

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1. 0:00Well, voting is underway in the UK
2. 0:02seaside electorate of Clactton for what
3. 0:04has become one of the strangest
4. 0:06bi-elections in British history. Reform
5. 0:09UK leader Nigel Farage is contesting the
6. 0:12very seat he vacated last month. He's up
7. 0:15against 33 candidates, including a
8. 0:17self-proclaimed intergalactic space
9. 0:19warrior. Our Europe correspondent, Elias
10. 0:22Cleo, is in Clton and he joins me now.
11. 0:25Um, Elias, now we got to go to Count
12. 0:28Binface cuz he's no stranger to running
13. 0:30in elections. Not much notice uh often
14. 0:33he gets other than political satire, but
15. 0:36does this bi-election feel different and
16. 0:39and hasn't in some way changed politics
17. 0:41in the UK?
18. 0:44>> Well, it does feel different, Girish.
19. 0:46Good evening to you. In a sense that
20. 0:49he's received and enjoyed a lot more
21. 0:51publicity than he ever has. Of course,
22. 0:53Count Binface is the pseudonym of and
23. 0:57the disguise of John Harvey, who is a
24. 1:00well-known political sketch writer,
25. 1:02Oxford educated uh sketch writer here in
26. 1:05the United Kingdom. And he is a serial
27. 1:08candidate at these kinds of things,
28. 1:10these high-profile bi-elections, and
29. 1:12he's run against uh several prime
30. 1:15ministers in national elections, in
31. 1:17their particular constituencies. But in
32. 1:20all of those elections, he's barely got
33. 1:23a mention. He doesn't really get any
34. 1:25publicity other than election night when
35. 1:28the sort of well-known politician he's
36. 1:30going up against um is shown on stage
37. 1:33and there might be a sort of passing
38. 1:35mention by uh TV um analysts saying,
39. 1:39"Look, there's G Binface. This time he's
40. 1:41a much more serious candidate uh in the
41. 1:43sense that he's getting a lot more
42. 1:45attention and pollsters say he could get
43. 1:48up around 20% of the vote which would be
44. 1:51extraordinary.
45. 1:52>> Yes. So tell us I mean Nigel Farage is
46. 1:56clearly the front runner. So who else is
47. 1:59contesting?
48. 2:02>> He is the front runner and that is
49. 2:04primarily because this is one of the
50. 2:06most conservative areas of the UK. uh
51. 2:08perhaps one of the most Brexity, for
52. 2:11lack of a better phrase, uh areas of the
53. 2:13UK. Um it's also because the major
54. 2:16parties aren't running in this
55. 2:18bi-election. And the reason for that,
56. 2:21well, we have to go back to why this
57. 2:23bi-election was called, and that's
58. 2:24because Nigel Farage was embroiled in a
59. 2:26donations uh controversy. Of course, he
60. 2:29received millions of dollars of
61. 2:30donations he didn't declare before he
62. 2:32was elected. He decided to resign, then
63. 2:35recontest his seat. But those major
64. 2:37parties, Labour, the Greens, the Liberal
65. 2:40Democrats, they've described this as a
66. 2:43circus publicity stunt, they want none
67. 2:45of it. So that has meant that Nigel
68. 2:48Farage is the clear front runner. But
69. 2:50that has also paved the way for a number
70. 2:52of novelty candidates, namely and most
71. 2:56most I guess famously, Count Binface.
72. 2:59But there are several other novelty
73. 3:01candidates running Girish, and I'll I'll
74. 3:03run through a few of them. Nick, the
75. 3:05incredible flying brick is running in
76. 3:07this election. He's of course dressed as
77. 3:09a brick. No surprises there. Howling
78. 3:11Lord Hope, Baron von Thunderclap,
79. 3:14they're all from the official monster
80. 3:16raving looney party. And woke Trump
81. 3:19Kazzy who says he's the woke Donald
82. 3:21Trump. He's actually an Australian. I
83. 3:24spoke to him a little earlier. He says
84. 3:26he's running for a serious reason. But a
85. 3:29lot of these joke candidates, I mean the
86. 3:32the voters in Clton don't really see the
87. 3:35funny side of it. And uh and that's
88. 3:37because um there is I guess a sense that
89. 3:42these guys might be taking the mickey.
90. 3:43It's devolved into a bit of a fast and
91. 3:46ultimately the voters want something
92. 3:48done for the town.
93. 3:50>> Yeah, quite a few characters there in
94. 3:52the running but also in the electorate
95. 3:54as we can see. Now, what sort of
96. 3:56campaign platform has Nigel Farage been
97. 3:59been running on? What has he has he said
98. 4:01throughout this campaign?
99. 4:05>> Well, the the the primary, I guess, um
100. 4:08framework for his bi-election campaign
101. 4:12is that this is an anti-establishment
102. 4:14campaign, that the major parties are
103. 4:16trying to undermine and destroy his
104. 4:18political career, and that the people of
105. 4:21Clton should be his ultimate judges.
106. 4:24There are things that I guess are more
107. 4:26poignant and important locally,
108. 4:29including bringing back tourism to the
109. 4:31area, um upgrading the infrastructure
110. 4:35around the beaches, as well as reducing
111. 4:37crime and lowering taxes for small
112. 4:41businesses in the area. But you speak to
113. 4:43voters here, the overarching theme
114. 4:45really is immigration. Um, of course,
115. 4:49Nigel Farage was one of the key
116. 4:51architects of Brexit, and since then,
117. 4:53he's become one of the most high-profile
118. 4:56anti-immigration
119. 4:57campaigners really. And that issue, I
120. 5:01guess, uh, plays well in this very
121. 5:03conservative part of the UK. You speak
122. 5:06to a lot of voters, that's the first
123. 5:07thing that comes up. They talk about
124. 5:09immigration, and Nigel Farage is
125. 5:11certainly uh, playing up on that uh,
126. 5:14throughout this campaign. As I have
127. 5:17mentioned, it's very unlikely Nigel
128. 5:19Farage will lose uh given the polling,
129. 5:22but the numbers the numbers are really
130. 5:24interesting. There will always be ardent
131. 5:26supporters of his in this electorate,
132. 5:28but we'll see how many of them turn out.
133. 5:31>> And finally, Elias, you've been up close
134. 5:33and personal with Count Binface. Uh
135. 5:36what's he like and what sort of
136. 5:38impression has he left on you? Okay.
137. 5:43>> Well, it's geez that is quite a uh
138. 5:47poignant question. I think Count Bidface
139. 5:50is an interesting case study of modern
140. 5:54politics really and the fact that he's
141. 5:56got so much attention is is quite
142. 5:58interesting as well. Firstly, I think
143. 6:02some people just see him as a joke. He
144. 6:04is trying to I guess shine a light on
145. 6:08one of the joys of British politics and
146. 6:11that is the novelty candidate. It's not
147. 6:13a new thing. The fact that anyone can
148. 6:16stand uh in an election if they get a
149. 6:18number of people signing a document and
150. 6:22uh they pay £500.
151. 6:24And so it's he's sort of showing the the
152. 6:26frivolity of democracy in this country.
153. 6:29I saw him or met him unmasked as well.
154. 6:32Just a very nice, polite man. Uh it was
155. 6:34sort of almost the opposite of his quite
156. 6:36prickly uh demeanor when he's under the
157. 6:40bin. I should also mention, Girish, that
158. 6:42if Count Binface by some miracle wins
159. 6:46this bi-election, it could be a
160. 6:48constitutional crisis because under
161. 6:50current parliamentary rules here in the
162. 6:52UK, you cannot sit in the House of
163. 6:54Commons with a face covering and that
164. 6:57includes of course a bin. Well, on to
165. 7:00the results then. Elias Cleo in Clton.
166. 7:02Thanks very much.