A pilot has drawn an enormous bin in the sky off the coast of Clacton, appearing to endorse Count Binface in the upcoming by-election against Nigel Farage.
Eight-mile sky art
The route traced by a Beagle B121 plane stretched around eight miles north to south, in a patch of sky south-east of Felixstowe, according to FlightRadar24. The mystery pilot flew from Henstridge Airfield in Somerset to Earls Colne in Essex before embarking on the artistic flight, then returned to the original airfield the same day.
Count Binface's rise
With just four days to go until Clacton goes to the polls, Count Binface has emerged as the unlikely top choice for critics of the Reform leader, after all major parties pulled out of the vote following Farage's resignation announcement last month. The 'independent space warrior', who has previously run against Boris Johnson, Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham, set out his manifesto two weeks ago.
Voters in the Essex seaside constituency will decide on Thursday whether to re-elect Farage as their MP. The Reform leader faces a record-breaking 33 rival candidates, the most of any by-election in modern British history. One candidate, independent Abi Hookway, announced she was withdrawing from the contest on her Instagram feed last month, but her name will remain on the ballot.
In a speech announcing his resignation and intention to run in the resulting by-election, Farage said he wanted to make the contest a 'people versus the establishment' fight. The withdrawal of the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Restore Britain appeared to take him by surprise. A poll last week found Count Binface could get around 20% of the vote in the by-election.
