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Not since the days of hysterical teenagers chaining themselves to rock stars’ railings has anyone been in such dogged pursuit of a celebrity.

When I say ‘celebrity’, I’m not talking about a devastatingly handsome action movie hero or pop star. In fact, I’m not overly familiar with my idol’s face at all – largely because it’s covered with the 20in bin-shaped helmet he wears.

I am, of course, referring to Count Binface, the comedian and satirical writer Jon Harvey whose alter ego – an intergalactic space warrior, leader of the Recyclons from the planet Sigma IX – has been aiming his ray guns at my home town of Clacton-on-Sea in Essex since the beginning of July.

His target, I should make clear, is the constituency’s on/off (currently off) MP Nigel Farage who, not seeing the stealth attack coming or taking it seriously when he did, has been taking quite a hammering.

I can’t help imagining one of those whoop whoop klaxons – of the type that followed a Klingon strike in Star Trek – regularly going off at the Reform UK HQ, with everyone diving behind filing cabinets, and deputy leader Richard Tice gasping: ‘She cannae take any more, captain!’, as sparks rain down on his quiff.

Yes, it’s a laugh. We in Britain have a long tradition of subversive humour, but the story behind this particular challenge is deadly serious and one that nobody – least of all Nigel Farage – can afford not to take seriously.

To recap, Clacton’s Summer of Fun kicked off on July 7 when Farage resigned as its MP, a seat he had held since 2024, thereby triggering an immediate by-election.

He did this amid extensive scrutiny over his finances, including a £5 million gift prior to the General Election from Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, as well as benefits received from George Cottrell, aka Posh George, a convicted fraudster, who lives in Montenegro.

Julia Lawrence travels back to her home town of Clacton-on-sea to search for the upcoming election candidates Nigel Farage and Count Binface

Count Binface, the comedian and satirical writer Jon Harvey's alter ego, is Nigel Farage's main challenger in the upcoming by-election

Farage insisted the money was simply generous gifts from rich friends, and that he had done nothing wrong. But an investigation was launched by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

At which point Farage, as the row over the ‘gifts’ escalated, resigned – halting the investigation – and took the case directly to the vote, for ‘the people of Clacton to decide’.

He framed the stand-off as a fight between ‘the people and the political establishment’, who were trying to scupper his very real chances of getting into No 10.

When the then Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch dismissed the resignation as nothing other than a ‘political tantrum’, all the major parties colluded in a total boycott of the by-election and refused to field any candidates against him.

Enter, stage left, a man with a bin on his head, calling himself Count Binface. And my heart leapt.

Here was a chance, I thought, for my town – the place I was born, went to school, had my first kiss, first heartbreak, the place my dad’s ashes for ever swim in the sea in which he taught me front crawl – to finally receive the spotlight it deserves.

For this is a community with many problems – including an ageing population and very few prospects for young people – which deserve to be taken seriously, without pity or condescension.

Clacton has been the butt of jokes for decades. I should know, I’ve been on the receiving end of many of them. First, it was the Kiss Me Quick hats and association with Butlin’s, then came Benefits by the Sea, the 2015 TV series which focused on the community of Jaywick, a village to the west of Clacton, known locally as an unemployment and crime hotspot.

'Talking to the people of Clacton, on another blisteringly hot day this week, it’s clear Farage is a divisive figure,' writes Julia Lawrence

A poster urging voters to back Count Binface. Clacton’s Summer of Fun kicked off on July 7 when Farage resigned as its MP, a seat he had held since 2024, thereby triggering an immediate by-election

It was named as one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK, with statisticians duly informing the nation that 62 per cent of working-age residents were on benefits. It made good TV. It also made a mockery of a hard-working and proud community – including members of my family and my friends who still live there and don’t deserve to be laughed at.

Then, in 2024, came Nigel Farage, who was welcomed with open arms.

After all, Clacton is the only constituency to have elected a UKIP MP at a General Election (Douglas Carswell in 2014) and was considered by many to be the beating heart of Brexit, with 70 per cent of the town voting ‘out’.

But could a new wave of political and democratic history now be made on my native turf by a man with a bin on his head?

If so, I’d be damned if I let it pass me by. Binface was soon being interviewed on BBC Radio 4, on Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart’s podcast The Rest is Politics, and Good Morning Britain, as well as on countless news outlets around the world.

I listened as he laid out his manifesto to the BBC’s Justin Webb.

He said he would ‘build at least one affordable home’. He would cap bus fares at £1.99 and 99 ice creams at 99p. He would spend more time in Clacton than in Mar-a-Lago (Farage is famously good pals with President Trump) and ‘will not accept £5 million gifts from crypto millionaires (on Earth)’.

What better guide, I figured, could he have than me, showing him around the town? So I approached his PR. We could go on the pier, I suggested. I could feed him chips through the slit in his bin.

Nigel Farage is polling at about 71 per cent and Count Binface at an estimated 20 per cent – and rising

Count Binface was also there on stage in Wigan in June, right next to Andy Burnham, at the Makerfield by-election, and stood against Boris Johnson in 2019 and Rishi Sunak in 2024

My sister could take him to her beach yoga class. My mum, who still lives in the town, would be happy to offer him a bed for the night if he missed his spaceship home.

While we’re at it, we could work on a few extra points for his manifesto, such as holding a giant party on the A12 (you might as well, it’s closed often enough), setting up a summertime concentration camp for jellyfish and launching an inquiry into whether the coins in the penny falls slot machines are actually glued on.

Thus began my month-long pursuit – two black and green council bin collection cycles, if you will – of my new hero. Emails and follow-up emails were sent, all politely received but to no avail. He must be a very busy bin indeed.

There was nothing for it: with the by-election now just days away I decided to go back to Clacton myself, in the hope of bumping into him on the campaign trail.

I went to the town centre, the pier, even famously genteel Frinton-on-Sea, which also falls within the constituency. No luck.

I was puzzled. After all, he’s not shy. He has appeared at some of the most significant moments of British politics, starting in 2017 as Lord Buckethead (no prizes for guessing the costume) before being forced to change his name because of a copyright clash with a character created by a Hollywood filmmaker.

Count Binface was also there on stage in Wigan in June, right next to Andy Burnham, at the Makerfield by-election, and stood against Boris Johnson in 2019 and Rishi Sunak in 2024. He has also run twice against Sir Sadiq Khan in the London mayoral elections.

On each of those occasions, he failed to make enough votes to cover his £500 deposit (he polled just 95 in Makerfield). But in

Clacton... well, all that could be about to change.

'Clacton has been the butt of jokes for decades. I should know, I’ve been on the receiving end of many of them,' said Julia Lawrence

Anti-Farage sentiment is hotting up in the town, with Count Binface the obvious outlet for Clacton’s frustration. It’s turning into a direct shoot-out – or Phaser challenge – between the two. Mano v Bino.

Currently, Farage is polling at about 71 per cent and Count Binface at an estimated 20 per cent – and rising.

Talking to the people of Clacton, on another blisteringly hot day this week, it’s clear Farage is a divisive figure, both loved and loathed in equal measure, meaning Binface could be in with a chance.

Sandy, enjoying a coffee in the town square, describes Farage as ‘a lot of talk and not a lot of action’, and says she will be voting for Binface.

As does business owner Zoe, who owns a refills shop in the town. ‘It’s a protest vote,’ she says, explaining her thinking. ‘Against how ridiculous this whole by-election is. And he can’t be any worse than what we’ve had before.’

Sisters Maureen Stephenson and Sheila Wiggett, out for a stroll on the seafront, do not agree.

‘The Bin,’ they tell me, ‘needs locking up’.

Loyal to Farage, Maureen insists: ‘He’s the only one who never lies and knows exactly what’s going on.’

A couple walk along Clacton's seafront. It is the only constituency to have elected a UKIP MP at a General Election (Douglas Carswell in 2014) and was considered by many to be the beating heart of Brexit, with 70 per cent of the town voting ‘leave'

A Reform UK bus in Clacton. The area was named as one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK, with statisticians duly informing the nation that 62 per cent of working-age residents were on benefits

Lyn, from the town’s wool shop, won’t go that far, but she’s voting Farage anyway as, with options as they stand, she ‘really can’t see the point’ of doing anything else.

Paul Crawley, meanwhile, a 63-year-old financial adviser, father of four and grandfather of seven, from Frinton, has taken a decisive stance. He’s erected a ‘Vote Count Binface’ and ‘I Can’t Wait for Bin Day’ placards on his front lawn – a mere 100 metres or so from where Nigel Farage has a house.

He is also active on the Binface Appreciation Facebook group, of which there are currently 116,000 members. ‘I think Farage is a charlatan. It is a waste of the public purse and an unnecessary election caused by a hissy fit. It’s become a circus and I am cross about that,’ he tells me.

‘I don’t think he’s spoken once for our area in parliament. I don’t think he’s helping the people at all. There are issues here. Look at youth unemployment, social care and the depleting town centre.

‘This town has a lot going for it, but it needs employment and it needs a good MP, one who does more than traipse around Mar-a-Lago while shilling for gold bullion.’

But is Binface, or Jon Harvey, that MP? As some of the townsfolk agree, they could do a lot worse. Bright, self-made and politically opinionated, he was born in Croydon, the son of an alcoholic estate agent, whose ‘chaotic’ home life saw the family move 11 times in his first 11 years.

After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in Literae Humaniores (the classics course favoured by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, among others) he began working as a scriptwriter for satirical television programmes such as The Thick of It and Have I Got News For You.

There’s a Countess Binface too: his actress wife Sarah, plus their two little bins.

And there’s a heart under that warrior’s breastplate. He raises money to fund his escapades selling T-shirts, caps and mugs – half of the proceeds from which he gives to Shelter, the homeless charity.

Look hard, and you’ll identify a satirical message behind some of the silliness of his campaign pledges. Take his policy on building ‘one affordable home’: the joke here, of course, is that this is far more achievable than the guff in most serious manifestos.

And his pledge to ‘lower your taxes but raise everyone else’s’. Isn’t that what new PM Andy Burnham is said to be proposing? Reforming property taxes to shift a greater financial burden onto homeowners in London and the South-East?

While no one actually expects Binface to win, there’s always an outside chance. It has happened before, remember, though admittedly by a man in a white suit, not with a bin on his head.

In the 1997 General Election, the BBC war reporter Martin Bell won the seat of Tatton as an independent ‘anti-sleaze’ candidate, defeating the incumbent Conservative MP Neil Hamilton amid the ‘cash-for-questions’ political corruption scandal.

Count Binface himself has conceded that while Nigel Farage is likely to win ‘numerically’, he would not win ‘morally’.

And if he’s right, he’ll be welcome to join me for a sundown cup of tea at our beach hut any time he likes.