Voters disillusioned by Brexit should have more options than Nigel Farage or the novelty candidate Count Binface

The UK could be forgiven if, like Brenda from Bristol, it feels it has had too much politics of late. The long death rattle of the Starmer government against a backdrop of relentless excitement from the White House has left everyone suffering a severe case of overwhelm. We all deserve a holiday – even Andy Burnham, exhausted after a few weeks in the job.

So the political and media class may think they are doing us a favour by turning the forthcoming byelection prompted by the resignation of the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, into a joke. But it is not very fair on the people of Clacton, who are being told they face a binary choice on 13 August, between Farage and the novelty candidate Count Binface.

Simon Nixon is a journalist and economics commentator

Continue reading…