Nigel Farage last night insisted he is fighting a ‘real election’.

He spoke out after his by-election gamble left him facing off against a man dressed as a bin.

Voters in Clacton face the prospect of a ‘farcical’ ballot, featuring none of the main rival parties, after they all refused to fight the contest sparked by Mr Farage’s sudden resignation amid sleaze accusations.

Mr Farage, accusing his mainstream opponents of cowardice, now has joke candidate Count Binface as his chief rival.

Speaking to the Daily Mail from one of his favourite pubs in the Essex constituency, he batted away accusations that he himself faces the prospect of becoming a laughing stock over the Commons contest, set to take place next month.

Asked if he is bracing for hustings against Count Binface over the coming weeks, the Reform chief branded the notion ‘silly’, adding: ‘I’m asking for an endorsement of me as a person, and our agenda for change.’

It came as bookies trimmed Binface’s odds from 50-1 to 5-1 overnight and Labour and the Tories weighed in behind the comedian, real name Jon Harvey.

The candidate – who describes himself as a 5,900-year-old space warrior and has policy pledges including ‘building one affordable house’ and ‘nationalising Adele’ – branded the showdown ‘Binface vs Binfire’, adding: ‘Bring it on.’

Ale be back: Nigel Farage, speaking from one of his favourite pubs in his Essex constituency, claimed he is fighting a ‘real’ election

Mr Farage, accusing his mainstream opponents of cowardice, now has joke candidate Count Binface as his chief rival

Talking trash: Bookies have trimmed Binface’s odds from 50-1 to 5-1 overnight, as Labour and the Tories weighed in behind the comedian, real name Jon Harvey

He also stood in the Makerfield ballot that saw Andy Burnham return to Westminster last month, losing his deposit after gaining 95 of the 45,000 votes cast.

Mr Farage’s interview with the Daily Mail took place minutes after he officially ceased to be an MP.

MPs can only resign from Parliament via an archaic mechanism that involves being given a ceremonial job by the Chancellor of the Exchequer – in Mr Farage’s case, the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.

Rachel Reeves confirmed his appointment around 2pm yesterday, adding: ‘If he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won’t stop him.’

The Reform leader confessed to being wrong-footed by the Tories, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Restore Britain as they all refused to participate in the run-off.

Asked if he’d considered the possibility of fighting as the only proper candidate, Mr Farage confessed: ‘No, of course not.

‘Why would they [not contest]? It’s a real election.’

Mr Farage accused all the other parties of ‘working together’ to undermine his by-election framing of a battle between him and the ‘establishment’.

‘The fact Labour and the Conservatives don’t want to stand, they’re both showing contempt for the electorate. They can use whatever terms they want – it’s a real election with real people.’

But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch mocked her Right-wing rival yesterday, joking: ‘If it’s the people versus the establishment, I think Nigel Farage might be looking like the establishment, and Count Binface may be the people. This whole thing is a farce.’ 

Also potentially threatening Mr Farage’s vote share, actor Laurence Fox, leader of the Right-wing Reclaim party, has said he will stand in Clacton. 

Last month, the hard-Right Restore Britain party took voters away from Reform in Makerfield. 

In another worrying sign for Mr Farage, a YouGov poll yesterday suggested the public are strongly opposed to the by-election and backed the boycott by opposition parties. 

They also do not believe the former Ukip leader has been honest about his finances.

Mr Farage is being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over £5million he received from cryptocurrency tycoon Christopher Harborne. 

He initially suggested it was to fund his personal security but has since said it was both a ‘reward’ for his Brexit campaigning and an ‘unconditional gift’.

This weekend he faced further questions about undeclared donations from a convicted fraudster, Reform supporter George Cottrell, also known as ‘Posh George’.

Mr Farage argued that calling the by-election was the only way of breaking the ‘paralysis’ Reform UK was facing this summer amid swirling questions about his personal finances and interests.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the by-election proposed by Mr Farage was ‘a farce’

He told the Daily Mail: ‘If there’s a daily media pile-on saying that I’m dishonest on this, that or the other, it leaves me in a position of paralysis. So I’ve done this to try and break that.

‘The extent of the co-ordination of the pile-on had left us slightly in a state of paralysis – that could have gone on for months. What if [the commissioner for] standards doesn’t answer until October?’

Mr Farage also launched a broadside against the House of Commons sleaze busters – branded a ‘kangaroo court’ by Reform sources on Tuesday – accusing some of its members of bias.

He blasted: ‘There are people on that Standards Committee who will judge me, who have reported me for Islamophobia. It is going to be a completely subjective judgement.

‘There’s no objectivity in this.’

And he was fulsome in his defence of Mr Cottrell, arguing he believes in ‘Christian forgiveness for what people have been charged and found to have done wrong aged 21’.

Long-term ally Mr Cottrell, 32, reportedly recruited and paid three staff to work on Mr Farage’s social media before the General Election, and has continued to allow him to use a five-storey Georgian property he rents for tens of thousands of pounds a month near Buckingham Palace.

New MPs are required to register any gifts worth more than £300 that they received in the previous 12 months, except where the gift ‘could not be reasonably thought by others’ to relate to their political activities.

Mr Farage insisted that he does not regret failing to declare support from Mr Cottrell, who was jailed in the US for wire fraud, before entering Parliament, arguing: ‘In 2021 I was going out into the English Channel, filming the boats. I was an influencer.

‘If George Cottrell helped a bit with paying for the film crews and stuff, so what? What’s that got to do with anybody?’

Keir Starmer said Mr Farage had ‘run himself into a cul-de-sac’ with his decision to quit as an MP and trigger a by-election.

The PM said at the Nato summit in Turkey: ‘Nigel Farage has been utterly exposed in this complete stunt that he was trying to set up. He’s up to his neck in sleaze and he doesn’t want to answer questions about it.’

As Mr Farage ruled out participating in constituency hustings with Count Binface, the new head of the BBC was asked by MPs if there would be a Question Time special ahead of the by-election, as there was for Makerfield, in the event of just one proper mainstream party candidate.

Director General Matt Brittin told the Culture select committee: ‘What we’ll do is enforce our guidelines, which are written to take account of any number of candidates in the case of a by-election.

‘And two things kick in there: one are our editorial guidelines, and the other is the code of practice for candidates, which is required by electoral law.’