Andy Burnham won Makerfield. Reform had their worst byelection night since the general election. And Count Binface, the helmet-wearing political satirist standing on a manifesto that included price-capping Wigan kebabs at £2, finished the evening having beaten seven other candidates.
In fairness to the electorate, he also had a 99p cap on 99 ice creams. The people of Makerfield may come to regret that one.
But the real highlight of Count Binface’s evening was not the vote count. It was the moment a Sky News reporter was sent over to interview the man with a bin on his head – and had absolutely no idea who he was.
The interview
The Sky correspondent, John Craig, approached cautiously. “A man with a bin on his head,” he observed, apparently hoping for inspiration to strike. “And it’s not… it’s not the Tory candidate.” A colleague off camera ventured that it “looks like something out of Star Wars.” There was a pause. Craig took a look at his list.
“Burnham?” he tried, which at least confirms he knew one name.
“No, I realised that,” he added, which is perhaps more concerning. It took the man in the bin to finally solve the mystery: “Oh, you’re Count Binface.”
“There you go,” said Binface, graciously. “You did go to journalism school. Excellent.”
Craig took this in good spirit and pressed on professionally, asking why Binface was standing. The answer, as it turned out, was not entirely lacking in substance. “Because I believe elected mayors should serve out their terms before they’re eligible to stand for parliament,” Binface said – a direct shot at Burnham’s decision to seek the seat while still Greater Manchester mayor. Craig conceded this was “a sensible, serious political point”, before Binface reminded him that as a journalist he was supposed to be impartial.
The policy platform
Binface then set out his stall. Alongside the kebab price cap and the 99p ice cream pledge, he proposed that cyclists who disobey the highway code should be forced to ride unicycles instead. HS2 would be transformed into “FFS1” and rerouted through rail executives’ homes. And he committed to building “at least one affordable house” – a policy that, if delivered, would put him ahead of several recent governments on that particular metric.
Asked what Burnham had promised, Binface was measured: “He said lots he’s going to do, and he changes his mind from time to time.”
He was asked how many votes he expected to receive. “I’d be happy with one,” he said. He was then asked if he lived in the constituency. “I do tonight,” he replied. Craig pointed out that this suggested he did not actually live there. “Well, do you?” Binface shot back. Craig admitted he did not. “So why should I?”
At this point Binface pivoted to Nigel Farage, who has faced repeated questions about his own relationship with his Clacton constituency, noting that the Reform leader “spends more time in America than in Clacton.” He added, for the record, that if he won he would swear to move to Makerfield. Craig observed that this was “not going to happen.” Binface agreed entirely.
The reaction
Footage of the interview circulated widely, with many viewers declaring it the most enjoyable moment of an otherwise extremely long byelection night. Craig’s colleagues were not slow to point out that not recognising Count Binface – who has stood in multiple elections including against Boris Johnson in Uxbridge – was a professional development moment of some significance. “Everybody knows who Count Binface is,” one colleague noted on air. “Let’s be honest about it.”
Craig took the ribbing well, later suggesting he had been “bullied” into doing the interview in the first place.
You can watch it below:
For his part, Binface ended the night having beaten the Christian Peoples Alliance candidate, the Independent candidate, the Social Democratic Party candidate, the Heritage Party candidate, and three others. He did not save his deposit. He did not, as far as we are aware, move to Makerfield.
But in a night full of genuinely significant politics – Burnham’s landslide, Reform’s bruising result, the Debbonaire-Pochin clash on Sky News – it was a man in a bin helmet who provided the moment that made people laugh the most. Sometimes British democracy just works.
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