Count Binface has been unmasked as a comic who worked on BBC shows including Have I Got News For You. Jon Harvey, a dad-of-two, dresses up as the space warrior to battle it out in elections. He recently fought Nigel Farage in the by-election in Clacton, Essex, with the Reform UK leader winning back his seat.
Comedy background revealed
It has emerged that Jon, 46, is a comedian who also worked on hit satire show The Thick of It. Following his defeat in Clacton, Count Binface said: “I can officially say that I am the winning candidate of the candidates who bothered to turn up for the results.
“That’s right, 9,455 actual votes. Just eight weeks ago in Makerfield [by-election], I got 95. That means I’ve got against Nigel Farage 10,000 per cent more votes than I got against Andy Burnham. What does that tell you? Well, it tells you that Nigel, who said that he didn’t want to be humiliated, maybe has been.”
Election record and character origins
He added: “As for me, I’m over the moon. I’m over your moon. I’m over my moons. And what comes next? Well, we shall see.” Jon, from Lewisham in south London, has been standing in elections since 2017 when he challenged Theresa May’s constituency as his Lord Buckethead character.
He describes himself as an “intergalactic space warrior” who dresses as a giant rubbish can. After being hit with a copyright complaint from film-maker Todd Durham, who created Lord Buckethead for 1984 film Hyperspace, he switched to a bin.
Political impact and social media presence
He famously stood in Boris Johnson’s old seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, London, where he claimed to have split the Labour vote and caused the Tory victory. Binface is also known for his social media quips. In response to the Lib Dems recently saying the Clacton vote was a “blatant attempt by Farage to dodge being held to account” over a £5m gift from a crypto tycoon, the space warrior replied: “I just ran on this policy in an election and held Farage to a Count. You guys spent the summer on the log flume at Chessington.”
