The votes were being counted, and the media had gathered for the moment Andy Burnham—with his eyes on Downing Street—would be elected as the MP for Makerfield in Greater Manchester. But Nick the Flying Brick, a frequent candidate for the Monster Raving Loony party, couldn’t help being distracted. How was it possible that the candidate across the Edge Conference Centre, wearing a silver bin on his head, had managed to get the 10 local nominations needed to stand?
The Flying Brick, whose real name is Nick Delves, 60, and who also serves as treasurer for the Loony party, had knocked on plenty of doors to secure nominations for his veteran candidate, Howling Laud Hope. Yet, the Flying Brick hadn’t seen anyone on the streets with a bin on their head. Certainly not in recent days. Not a single one.
What was the story? Along with his fellow Loony party activist, the Ravin Rodent (a care worker by day), the Flying Brick approached the mysterious silver figure by the trestle tables.
“He’s very much a one-man band, and he gets a bit odd if you use his real name,” said the Flying Brick about Count Binface. “He told me he found someone in Makerfield to sort it out. We talked for about 10 minutes. No one has ever seen him without the bin on his head, and the conference centre’s air conditioning was broken, so he must have been really hot. Then I asked if I could take a photo with him.”
What happened next unsettled the Flying Brick. “He asked what we were going to do with it,” he recalled. “We said we’d probably put it on our website, and he said, ‘No, no.’ He said he would sue if we took a picture.”
“I think he might have been half joking? He was half in, half out of character. He was looking at the cameras, so we took a picture anyway—it wasn’t great, to be honest. But he runs a very tight operation. We have to take our hats off: he’s completely outshining us.”
View image in fullscreen: Count Binface speaks to the media during the vote count for the Makerfield byelection. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA
Many may have concluded some time ago that British politics couldn’t get any sillier, but this week Nigel Farage resigned as the MP for Clacton in order to stand for… the seat of Clacton. His reasoning was that it should be up to the constituency, not the parliamentary commissioner for standards, to decide whether he did anything wrong by not declaring a £5m gift from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne and funds from convicted fraudster George Cottrell for his staffing, security, and housing.
“This will be a people versus the establishment byelection,” the Reform UK leader said, before another unexpected twist. After the other main parties said they wouldn’t stand in a “stunt” election, Count Binface issued a statement: “I will be a unity candidate and pledge to build at least one affordable house. Nigel Farage says he wants ‘the people versus the establishment.’ So be it. Leave him to me.”
Is Binface the new Martin Bell—the man in the white suit who stood in 1997 for all things sane and good in the constituency of Tatton against the scandal-ridden Tory MP Neil Hamilton? Is the man in the mask the hero the country needs, if not deserves?
Probably not. Binface didn’t want to talk to the Guardian unless it was in character. The Monster Raving Loony party is among those planning to put forward a range of oddly named candidates as well. “Because we can,” said their leader, Howling Laud Hope.
But Binface, whose real name is Jon Harvey, has certainly become a media favorite since Tuesday, enjoying a moment in the spotlight to talk about his policies of nationalizing singer Adele and capping the price of croissants at £1.
It’s Harvey’s stated aim to have policies that get a laugh but maybe make voters think. Even the Daily Mail, sympathetic to Farage’s anti-immigration party, couldn’t resist poking a little fun. “Farage: Binface byelection is deadly serious,” was its front-page headline on Thursday.One day, an opinion piece in the paper had the headline: “Farage is learning that when voters are shouting at you, it’s bad. When they’re laughing at you, it’s over.”
There’s international interest too. In France, he’s been called Count Trash-Head, and in Spain, he’s known as Count Trash-Can.
It probably wasn’t how Farage expected things to turn out. Raheem Kassam, a former adviser to Farage who describes himself as a journalist, turned detective on the novelty candidate.
“All this talk about Count Binface got me looking into who this guy really is,” he wrote, teasing his big reveal. “Jonathan David Harvey – who makes a living producing comedy shows for the BBC – is an Oxbridge liberal elitist with years of anti-Brexit, anti-Trump, and anti-British rants on his Twitter.”
Not that Kassam doesn’t enjoy a laugh like anyone else. “Don’t get me wrong, I think Binface is a hilarious character, and Harvey is clearly a talented satirist,” he continued. “But pretending he’s just some random guy in a suit having a laugh is nonsense.”
The tradition of novelty candidates in Britain arguably started with Lieutenant Commander Bill Boaks, a highly decorated war hero. From the 1951 election onward, he stood in 28 votes focused solely on road safety, riding around on a heavily modified bicycle covered in big slogans.
But it was David Sutch, better known as Screaming Lord Sutch, who really made the role his own. He first ran in the 1960s in a by-election triggered by John Profumo’s resignation after the famous sex and spies scandal. Then, in the early 1980s, he formed the Monster Raving Loony Party, satirizing the political class while proposing bizarre yet strangely appealing policies.
According to a friend, Harvey – whose father played drums in the same band as Sutch – believes he is the natural successor. There are similarities. Sutch, who took his own life in 1999, didn’t study classics at Oxford like Harvey, and he was more of a showman than a comedian. But like Harvey, he had tragedy in his past.
Sutch was only 10 months old when his father, a war reserve police officer, died in an accident. Harvey, 46, from Croydon, has spoken about living in 11 different houses in his first 11 years, amid the chaos caused by his father’s alcoholism. He described his dad, an estate agent who died in 2005 at age 57, as “Jekyll and Hyde sponsored by Strongbow.”
In 2015, Harvey found the body of his older brother, Dan, 43, in his London flat. Obese and with undiagnosed diabetes, he had fallen into a hypoglycemic coma. Harvey wrote a book about coping with his grief through sport – a passion he shared with his brother, whose ashes are scattered outside the London Stadium at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
A couple of years later, Harvey – who is married to comedic actor Sarah Daykin – began his political career, not as Binface but as the more storied character Lord Buckethead.
It all started when Harvey watched a VHS with a friend at Oxford of a film called Gremloids, which featured a Darth Vader-inspired figure. They later learned that a businessman named Mike Lee, who had bought the video rights to the movie, ran in 1987 dressed as Lord Buckethead against Margaret Thatcher in her Finchley constituency. Lee hoped to sell some videos.
Two decades later, when Theresa May called a general election to push through her Brexit deal, the absurdity of British politics in 2017 reminded Harvey of Buckethead. He decided it would be fun to bring him back.He had a chance to develop his stand-up routine.
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Lord Buckethead poses with some politics students during the vote count in Theresa May’s Maidenhead constituency in 2017. Photograph: Mark Kerrison/Alamy
“The election happened and it went viral around the world,” he recalled in a podcast three years ago. “So much so that on Thursday night, I was in a sports hall in Maidenhead, standing next to Theresa May as she blew her majority, and three days later, I was flown first class to New York by John Oliver to appear on his HBO show as the surprise star guest.”
But having a media profile came with problems. There was a copyright dispute with the owners of the rights to Gremloids. Harvey, who has since become a writer for shows like The Thick of It and Have I Got News for You, dropped the character and took on the persona of Count Binface for the 2019 general election.
However, the Hollywood director of Gremloids, Todd Durham, got in touch with David Hughes, a former press officer for the original 1987 Buckethead. Durham convinced Hughes to run as Buckethead in Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge constituency.
This set the stage for an ugly clash during the vote count. Binface drowned out Buckethead’s interviews by singing The Star-Spangled Banner, and Buckethead flipped Binface off as the results were announced.
“I think I did get more votes than him,” said Hughes. “But we went for drinks, and I thought, actually, he’s cool. So then Buckethead posted on Twitter – I controlled the Twitter account back then – saying: ‘I’m an impostor. The true heir to the Buckethead throne is Count Binface, and I fully endorse him.’”
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Lord Buckethead, left, and Elmo watch Boris Johnson’s speech after the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election count in 2019. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
How does Hughes feel now? “I’ve had lots of people reaching out to me over the last few days, saying, ‘Why don’t you run against Binface?’ and ‘It’ll be the battle of the containers.’ But no, I’ve already done that.”
Hughes admitted he finds Binface’s routine a bit stale and in need of fresh material. Harvey has spoken dismissively of GB News in the past and suggested that nothing has improved since 2010 – coincidentally, the last time Labour lost power.
What drives Harvey? “I genuinely think that, more than just for the clicks and laughs, he actually believes that the absurd side of British elections is kind of cool,” said Hughes.
“And there’s that endless joke: there’s one absurd, parody, completely inappropriate candidate – and he’s running against Count Binface. That one is kind of funny.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about He gets a bit weird if you call him by his real name the unstoppable rise of Count Binface
BeginnerLevel Questions
Q Who is Count Binface
A Hes a satirical British politician and performance artist He wears a silver bin on his head and runs for office to make a point about politics and waste
Q What is He gets a bit weird if you call him by his real name
A Its the title of a book about Count Binfaces life campaigns and rise to fame The title is a joke referencing his secret identity
Q Why does he wear a bin on his head
A Its a visual joke Hes Count Binfacelike a trash can for a face It symbolizes how he thinks politicians are full of rubbish and waste
Q Does he actually want to win elections
A Not really His goal is to highlight serious issues through humor and get media attention for his policies
Q Whats his real name
A Thats part of the joke He never reveals ithence the title If you call him by it he gets a bit weird
IntermediateLevel Questions
Q What are some of his famous policies
A Theyre silly but pointed Examples Free biscuits for every voter Ban all meetings that could have been an email and Make the London Underground smell like a freshly baked croissant They mock real political promises
Q How did Count Binface first become famous
A He started as a parody candidate in the 2017 UK general election standing against thenPrime Minister Theresa May His jokes and binhead look went viral and he got more serious coverage than many real candidates
Q Has he ever been elected to anything
A No but hes come close to winning local seats in symbolic elections In 2021 he won a mock Mayor of London vote in a student union Hes never won a real government seat
Q Why do people take him seriously
