Nadhim Zahawi’s being asked to correct the record after claiming on Good Morning Britain that Count Binface received £180,000 from Labour donor Dale Vince during the Clacton byelection.
Zahawi, the former Conservative chancellor who joined Reform in January, made the claim discussing Farage’s win last Thursday. Presenter Kate Garraway noted 9,455 people had voted for Binface, second place with 26.9%. Zahawi replied: “Yeah, and he got, by the way, he got I think £180,000 from Dale Vince, who is a big Labour supporter. He got activists from the Conservative Party and from Labour going out to try and knock on doors for him.”
Binface’s now disputed both parts of that directly.
Binface asks for a correction
In a statement addressed to Zahawi, ITV, Good Morning Britain and Garraway, Binface said: “This is untrue. Dale Vince has never donated any money to me, and at no point have I asked activists from any other party to knock on doors for me. If anyone did so, it was not at my direction and was of their own volition. I’m sure Mr Zahawi will want to correct the record at his earliest convenience.”
No evidence was offered on GMB to back up the £180,000 claim. There had been an earlier offer of help from Vince, but an offer isn’t the same thing as a completed donation. The Telegraph reported in July that Vince was prepared to support Binface’s campaign against Farage. The £180,050 figure quoted in that report wasn’t an estimate of money already received. It’s the statutory spending ceiling for a candidate in a parliamentary byelection, per the Electoral Commission’s own guidance.
Zahawi appears to have taken a public offer of support, rounded down the legal spending limit, and described it on television as money Binface actually “got.” Binface’s position is clear: the offer was never accepted, and Vince didn’t donate anything.
What about the activists?
Zahawi also claimed Conservative and Labour activists had gone canvassing for Binface. It’s entirely possible individual members or former members of other parties chose to help, Labour, the Conservatives, the Lib Dems and the Greens all declined to field official candidates in Clacton, leaving their usual supporters free to make their own choices. That wouldn’t prove the parties organised support for Binface, or that his campaign recruited those activists.
Binface says he never asked anyone from other parties to canvass for him. If anyone did, he says, they acted entirely on their own. The distinction matters, Zahawi’s wording implied Binface’s campaign was propped up by a wealthy Labour donor and party-supplied activists. Binface denies receiving the money or requesting the canvassers.
Binface won more than a quarter of the vote
Farage comfortably retained Clacton with 22,239 votes, 63.3%. Binface finished second with 9,455, 26.9%, the strongest result of his political career, the remaining 32 candidates all finishing below 1.5%.
That followed a campaign where Binface repeatedly targeted Farage’s financial controversies, time spent abroad, and his actual record as Clacton’s MP. His pledge card promised weekly constituency surgeries, quick replies to residents, and more days in Clacton than Washington. His musical election broadcast mocked “unconditional gifts with a curious whiff,” an unmistakable reference to the £5m Farage received from Christopher Harborne. That investigation restarted the moment Farage returned to Parliament, which made Zahawi attacking Binface over an alleged donation particularly exposed to ridicule.
The response wasn’t kind
@SimonHarrisMBD picked out Zahawi’s own qualifier: “The biggest, most problematic, least believable part of Zahawi’s quote there: ‘I think.'”
@Forza_FPL questioned the strategy entirely: “Even if it was true, of all the attack lines that party could go for, I’m not sure if donations is the wisest. I can think of about five million reasons why.”
@Planet_Belfast was blunt: “Nadhim Zahawi telling lies. Less an opinion, more a permanent state of mind.”
@dave43law read the whole thing as necessary for Reform’s preferred narrative: “This is the only way that Reform can pretend that Farage beat the establishment.” Farage had called Binface the “establishment candidate” after the result, prompting Binface to point out Farage has been a prominent political figure for more than three decades. That response is a decent reminder of how hard the anti-establishment label gets to sustain when it’s coming from a veteran party leader backed by wealthy donors.
Zahawi probably meant to explain away Binface’s 9,455 votes. Instead he handed Binface another public correction to make against a Reform figure. At time of writing, Zahawi hasn’t provided evidence for the £180,000 claim or issued the correction Binface asked for.
One response to “‘The least believable part was “I think”‘: Zahawi mocked over Count Binface claim”
-
Typical response from the ex Tory cult. If you throw enough shit at a person maybe some will stick.
However, this time it hasn’t it’s bounced back on the thrower.
Leave a Reply