THE UK public want Count Binface to beat Nigel Farage in the Clacton by-election, a new poll has suggested.
The Ipsos survey published on Friday, July 10, suggested that one in three adults (33%) in the UK would prefer Count Binface to become the next MP for Clacton.
The Reform UK leader only gathered the support of 21% of the public, giving Count Binface a 12-point lead.
Almost a third (32%) of people said they didn’t want either candidate to win, while 13% said they didn’t know.
Nearly three quarters (74%) said the parliamentary standards commissioner should be investigating whether the Reform UK leader broke parliamentary rules.
And 73% said the investigation should continue even if Farage wins the by-election, which is set to be held on August 13.
The Ipsos survey, conducted on July 8 and 9, polled 1000 British adults online aged between 18 and 75.
"Of course, it is the people of Clacton that will vote in the upcoming by-election and not the public overall,” Keiran Pedley, research director at Ipsos in the UK, said.
“But the fact that just one in five Britons would prefer Nigel Farage win reflects how his personal poll ratings have fallen over the past year – even if Reform supporters remain very much behind him.
“Elsewhere in the poll we see strong support for parliamentary standards investigations continuing even if Mr Farage wins the by-election.
“Suggesting his assumed victory will not make these issues go away.”
It comes as Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, insisted a donor at the heart of a row over the party’s finances is “permissible” and comes from a “very successful aristocratic family”.
Tice said he believed reports about the money from Fiona Cottrell, the mother of George Cottrell, were a “politically motivated smear” against the party amid ongoing scrutiny of support received by their senior figures.
Pressed on whether any due diligence was done where Ms Cottrell had got the money from, he said: “I’ve known the Cottrell family, my family have known the Cottrell family and the broader Hesketh family, for 50 years.
“A very successful aristocratic family, and as far as I’m concerned, she’s a permissible donor and that’s the end of it.”
According to The Times, Ms Cottrell made two £250,000 payments to Reform before the last General Election in 2024, in which Farage became an MP for the first time.
Both sums are said to have been given before Farage announced his intention to stand in his former Commons seat of Clacton.
She also gave £1 million to Britain Means Business, described as a fundraising vehicle for the party which deputy leader Tice is a director of, which was among transactions flagged by bankers to the National Crime Agency (NCA) in suspicious activity reports, according to the Guardian.
The Metropolitan Police has said the force opened an inquiry in February 2025 following a referral by the Electoral Commission “relating to donations made to a political party ahead of the 2024 UK General Election”.
Tice insisted he was not aware of the investigation and it was all a “politically motivated smear campaign”
Farage quit as MP for Clacton to stand in the ensuing by-election after questions mounted about a separate £5 million gift he received from crypto-billionaire and Reform donor Christopher Harborne.
The party leader has billed the by-election, set to take place on August 13, as a “people versus the establishment” contest.
But his foremost opponent is likely to be comedy candidate Count Binface after the main Westminster parties boycotted the contest.
