Count Binface

Count Binface is a satirical novelty candidate created by the British comedian Jonathan David Harvey in 2018. He stood as a candidate for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the 2019 United Kingdom general election against the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, and again at the 2023 by-election that followed Johnson's resignation. He also stood in the London Mayoral elections in 2021 and 2024. In the 2024 general election, Binface stood against the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in his Richmond and Northallerton constituency.

In earlier elections, Harvey stood as Lord Buckethead, but was forced to change the character due to a copyright dispute with the American filmmaker Todd Durham, who created Lord Buckethead for his 1984 science fiction film Hyperspace. Since then Harvey has used the platform of Binface to promote electoral participation, with the slogan, "Make Your Vote Count".

Originally standing as an independent, since 2023 his affiliation has been given as Count Binface Party on ballot papers.

Count Binface is an "independent space warrior" in a black and grey uniform, with a long silver cape and a helmet shaped somewhat like a dustbin with a glowing strip where his eyes would be. He describes himself as the leader of the Recyclons from the planet Sigma IX, and claims to be over 5,900 years old.

Binface announced a series of satirical policies for the 2019 general election, including:

• Bringing back Ceefax, the teletext service. He had previously promised to bring back the service in 2017 as Lord Buckethead.
• Returning 20,001 police officers to the street, a reference to the Conservative pledge of 20,000 more police officers.
• Nationalising model railways.
• Holding a referendum on holding a second referendum on the United Kingdom's membership in the European Union.
• Allowing any Czechs on the Irish border to remain, a reference to the Brexit and the Irish border controversy.
• Nationalising Adele, the English singer.
• Abolishing the House of Lords. He had previously pledged the same in 2017 as Lord Buckethead.
• Giving free broadband to everyone.
• Stopping the sale of arms to repressive regimes.
• Making Piers Morgan zero emissions by 2030.
• Renaming London Bridge to "Phoebe Waller-Bridge".
• Introducing a minimum voting age of 16 and a maximum of 80.
• Sending £1 trillion a week to the NHS.
• Proroguing Jacob Rees-Mogg.
• Banishing Katie Hopkins to the Phantom Zone.
• Moving the hand dryer in the men's toilet at Uxbridge's Crown and Treaty pub to a "more sensible position".

In 2019, another individual contested the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat as Lord Buckethead, representing the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, to which Binface said he "look[s] forward to both the hustings and to challenging [him] to take part in a receptacle-to-receptacle debate".

Binface announced his intention to stand for the London Mayoral Election, which was originally scheduled for 2020, but was delayed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He announced a suite of 21 policies which "marries fiscal responsibility, social awareness, and not being an anti-vaccine nutjob", including:

• Finish Crossrail.
• Free parking for electric vehicles between Vine Street and the Strand, in reference to where the Free Parking space is located on the British Monopoly game board.
• London to join the European Union.
• Renaming London Bridge to "Phoebe Waller-Bridge" and Hammersmith Bridge to "Wayne Bridge".
• All government ministers' pay, including that of the mayors, should be tied to that of nurses for the next 100 years.
• Loud snacks to be banned from theatres.
• The use of the speakerphone function on mobile phones to be banned in public. Any offenders caught will be forced to watch the film version of Cats every day for a year.

Binface started a fundraiser to raise £10,000, the amount necessary to allow him to stand for Mayor of London. The excess money was donated to the charity Shelter to help combat homelessness. He finished ninth with 24,775 votes in the mayoral election.

In March 2024, Binface started another fundraiser to allow him to stand in the next London mayoral election, which was held on 2 May 2024. Any funds raised in excess of the necessary £10,000 would again be donated to charity. After gaining the required amount, he announced his entry into the race and released his manifesto, which re-used many policies from previous years but added a few new ones.

The Binface manifesto called for the abolition of VAR (presumably in football matches) and promised to force Thames Water managers to "take a dip in the Thames... see how they like it", in reference to the recent sewage discharge controversy; also to "build at least one affordable house", referring to the housing crisis in London.

He finished in 11th place with 24,260 votes, notably, ahead of Britain First, despite the election's change to a First Past the Post voting system. Incumbent mayor and election winner Sadiq Khan in a victory speech remarked about celebrating "becoming the first person in British political history to win successive victories over Count Binface". He added that Binface finishing ahead of the far-right Britain First candidate was "another reason to love London".

On 7 June 2024, Binface announced his intention to stand as a candidate in the 2024 general election, contesting the Richmond and Northallerton constituency against the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak. Binface said that he was "taking on the biggest fish of the lot" in the election and commented; "You shirked D-Day Rishi, you can't miss the B-Day", a reference to the controversy caused by Sunak's early departure from the ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings. Amongst new policies announced in Binface's manifesto was a "space bridge" to solve the traffic problems caused by Northallerton's level crossings and reducing the price of 99 Flake ice creams to 99 pence. He also proposed National Service for former prime ministers and inviting European nations to join the United Kingdom.

Binface enlisted the mathematician and YouTuber Matt Parker to create charts for his free election pamphlet and to act as an election observer on behalf of the Count Binface Party. The Daily Star endorsed Binface, as well as the Labour Party.

Binface finished sixth of thirteen candidates with 308 votes, representing 0.6% of all the votes cast. He commented on Twitter that it was his best placing and highest ever vote count in a national election and declared that "Bindependence Day has come".

• Binface, Count (2022). What On Earth?: An alien's guide to fixing Britain. London: Quercus Editions Ltd. ISBN 978-1529421651.

• List of frivolous political parties
• Perennial candidate
• Vermin Supreme, an American satirical candidate.

• Official website
• Count Binface on Twitter