The Duran Podcast - Farage Disposes of Binface. Labour and Conservatives End Up Losing

Episode Date: August 15, 2026

Farage Disposes of Binface. Labour and Conservatives End Up Losing

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the by-elections in Clacton in the UK with Nigel Farage facing off against Count Binface. And Count Binface came in second. Farage won. How do you see things? Well, I need, now, I think before I proceed and discuss this election, I think a very, very important thing needs to be said, which is that you must be extremely careful. especially careful today, reading what the British newspapers say, reading what the British commentary ads say, because what they're saying obviously reflects the fact

that they are all united in intense hostility towards Nigel Farage and towards reform. I mean, much of the media here is, you could call it left of centre, and it wants to see Burnham and the Labour Party do well. Another very large part of the media is associated with the Conservative Party, and they've been trying to build up Kim Badenock, who is the leader of the Conservative Party as a successful and effective politician. And this is distorting altogether the commentary. This is what actually happened.

We had a parliamentary by-leg. in Clacton. Nigel Farage called it because he's now under investigation because of this five million pound donation he received from a businessman who is based in Thailand and which he didn't declare. Now he called this by-election in anticipation obviously of an unfavourable decision from the parliamentary investigation that is underway. There was an enormous amount of ridicule and criticism of his decision to call this by-election. The major parties, the conservative, Labour, Liberal and Green parties refused to involve themselves in this by-election. They hid behind this comedian character, Count Binface, who has received an enormous amount of attention

in the British media, clearly in an attempt to embarrass Farage. Nobody expected that Farage would actually lose, but the expectation was that Binface would at least take away a significant amount of votes from Farage because Farage is damaged goods after the revelation of the five million pound donation. Had that happened, they would have said that Farage was discredited and is an exhausted and collapsing figure in British politics. What instead actually happened is that not only did Farage win the by-election, but he won big. He actually increased his vote compared to the 2024 general election. He added a thousand votes.

Now, that is extremely unusual in a parliamentary by-election in Britain. It's very unheard of for a political party, the incumbent in a by-election. to call a by-election in this way and to actually increase not just the share of the vote, but the actual number of his votes. And it is difficult to see this as anything other than a vote of confidence in Farage, in Clacton, and that, of course, is going to strengthen his position overall in British politics and in the contests and battles which are to come. Farage gambled.

He won the gamble. He ran an effective and successful campaign, and he's in a much stronger position now as the autumn approaches that he might have been or would have been if he'd not caught this by-election, waited for the result of, the investigation and faced the political challenges that are inevitably going to follow. So Count BinFace was propped up by the media in order to embarrass Farage?

Is that... Massively, so. I mean, what does that say about the state of British politics in general? I mean, it's, okay, Binface, a comedian, we get it. That's fine. But the fact that he was the main opponent of Farage and he was giving interviews all across the media, it says something about the state of British politics. It's embarrassing for British politics that this was allowed to happen. I mean, labor, the conservatives, what they're actually doing is not only damaging Farage or trying to damage reform, but they're damaging the entire political structure in the UK, aren't they?

You are absolutely correct. And by the way, in narrow political terms, it has turned out to be a huge mistake. If Labour, Conservative and the Liberals had combined perhaps behind a single credible candidate, if they'd found someone who was, you know, somebody who looked impressive and had a history in politics, or if not in politics in general British life, and they'd set him up against Farage and this had been a serious contest. Well, we might have had a different outcome. But instead, by trying to humiliate Farage in this way,

what they actually did was they antagonised people in Clacton and I suspect in the wider country, it made them look ridiculous because to be clear, they were hiding behind BinFace. They were all propping him up. They were all throwing money at him. They were giving him a huge amount of publicity. He was giving interview after interview after interview.

There was no doubt that he had the establishment behind him. So when the establishment puts up a candidate in a serious by-election against a party leader like Farage, and it's a comedian who goes around dressed as a dustbin, then, of course, what makes it look like is that they themselves are not serious people and critically that they are not taking the electorate seriously. So I think this contributed to the swing in Farage's favour, in this by-election that we have seen.

The British political class is losing touch with the sentiments of the British people. They are misjudging them again and again and again, as they have been doing ever since the Brexit referendum 10 years ago. Yeah, Farage wins big. Binface wins big because he played the assessment. establishment, by having the establishment prop him up and support him. He got a ton of publicity. So he completely played the establishment parties. And at the end of the day, it is the establishment parties that end up looking silly in all of this because they couldn't find a candidate to stand

up against Farage. That's pathetic. So, I mean, the two big winners in all of this, at least how it looks to me is Farage and BinFace. And the big losers are the establishment. establishment parties. Correct. Absolutely. And of course, in political terms, the big winner is Farage. Now, I think here again, we need to take a step back and look at the general situation in British politics. Before I do that, I want to just say something about the British electorate. I've been following elections in many countries and I've followed many, many elections in Britain. The British electorate is one of the toughest, most tough-minded,

most cynical and most experienced in the world. Now, very often in many elections, I have disagreed with the way that they have voted. But I have never had any doubt that they knew in every election when they voted, that they knew what they were doing and that they are a force that should be treated with respect and treated extremely seriously. The British political class is losing its understanding of this. They are not taking the British electorate seriously. And here again, we are getting opinion polls that tell us that reform has slipped, that Farage has been damaged as a result of the donations scandal. And I would agree. I think that a lot of people in Britain do not like and are very unhappy with the fact that Farage received this

five million pound donation and other donations as well and didn't declare them. Any other politician in his position who did that would have suffered very, very serious damage indeed and the electorate would probably have started to turn against him. They're not turning against Farage. They're not turning against reform to anything like the extent that some of the media stories might lead you to expect. Yes, after Starmer was forced out as Prime Minister and Burnham became the new Prime Minister, we have had a honeymoon period for Burnham and for the Labour Party. There always happens in politics. Labor has undergone a slight recovery in the polls, but it is still polling well below 30%, extraordinary for a government party, extraordinary also for the Labour Party, polling at a rate

of 27%, 25 to 27%, which is what I see Labour getting, would 10 years ago have been. been considered completely catastrophic. Reform is only just behind. The economic situation in Britain is going to deteriorate over the next few months. We have good reasons to think that energy prices are going to grow, that the cost of living is going to deteriorate. We saw that in the second quarter of this year, the British economy was standing. and come the autumn, Burnham, who does not appear to have any plan going forward, is going to start to lose support and he's rating and that of the Labour Party is going to fall. At that point, Farage is now well positioned and reform are well positioned to take advantage.

and we are likely to see this is my, this is my, I guess, it's my informed opinion based on what I know about British politics. By the end of the autumn, the beginning of the winter, they will be back in the lead again. Yeah, if Pernaum wants to get serious about, about his prime ministership, and if Labour wants to get serious about winning,

they have to just, uh, get out of all of the foreign entanglements and just focus on the UK. It's that simple. The deep state will never let them do this, and we've talked about this in previous videos. But it is, maybe I'm wrong about this, but I think it would be an easy process, an easy decision to make pull out of Project Ukraine, pull out of everything else, focus on the UK, and that's that. But it's the establishment that wants their cake and they want to eat it too in a way. They want to be the number one party and they want to rule over the UK, but they also want to go to war with Russia.

They also want to prop up Ukraine and they want to send as much money as possible to Project Ukraine and they want to be involved in all of the other foreign entanglements. In other words, they want to keep the notion, the dream of empire alive. you can't have both you're absolutely correct they're not by the way and everything that you are saying flows from the fact

that they're not listening to the British electorate and they're not assessing the situation in Britain at all well of course they should do all the things that you've just said it would be a popular policy a prime minister

who came out and said look from this moment on the priorities Britain and the needs of the British people and we have to cut back. We can't afford to sustain constant support for Ukraine. We can't afford to sustain all of the other entanglements that we've been talking about. We need better relations with countries that we've managed to destroy our relations with. China, Russia, other countries do. And we need to develop a proper plan and policy about how to

turn things around here in Britain. And there are ways to do that. A prime minister who did that and who had the courage to do it would get support. Of that, I have absolutely no doubt. But what we have instead is, as I said, a prime minister who's treading water because he knows of the establishment his own party, most of the MPs in the House of Commons, the civil service, the security services, All of those people, the media, would turn on him if he did that. And we have an establishment as well, which instead of getting behind a prime minister who took that kind of line, wants to keep these exhausted policies that you're talking about going, decided once Britain to reintegrate into a visibly failing EU

and can only come up with bizarre and ludicrous strategies like putting up someone like Count Binface to take on Nigel Farage. Now, just to say this, on this, to repeat again, if they'd combined behind a serious candidate, not necessarily someone who's a politician, but somebody who's well known, a famous person from the arts or the sciences, or someone like that,

a person of acknowledged integrity, something that they used to do, by the way, I can remember this happening earlier in British politics. They would have, you know, because Farage was vulnerable. I mean, you can't put a good gloss of what he did in receiving these donations and not declaring them. Receiving them.

Well, you can argue that's money, that's a private arrangement between him and these people. Maybe some of these donors that he took this money from, you can argue that they're not the most attractive characters and that might not have looked good. But the real damage for Farage was that he didn't declare them, that he tried to keep it all secret. And the electorate absolutely does not like that. The people of Clacton do not like that. But when they see that the alternative that they're being offered is a clown, well, that is only going to make them angry. And they're going to say to themselves, well, at the end of the day, Nigel may not.

be perfect, but he is somebody who does listen to what we are saying. He does listen to us about Europe, about the economic situation, about foreign policy, about migration policy, about all of these things. And we're going to put our doubts about him to one side, and we are going to vote for him. Because the political class, the political establishment, is not taking us seriously. It is on the contrary, treating us with ludicrous levels of disrespect. Why doesn't Burnham or his advisors just tell them to pull out of all these foreign policy entanglements, all of these failures, and they are failures. Project Ukraine is a failure. Ukraine is going down. Everyone understands this. Everyone knows this.

EU, the EU project is a failure. Why try to re-enter the European Union when the whole thing is a complete total mess? Why would you want to be involved in something like that if you're the UK? Why doesn't someone just tell Burnham, look, enough? Just get out of these things. Don't associate with all of these losing projects. I mean, who's the... the establishment? Okay, it's the media, the NGOs, but who's really the driving force that

is pushing every single prime minister, whether it's conservatives, whether it's labor, left, right, to continue down this, this losing path, this losing formula? And will Farage be any different? Why should anyone believe that Farage, if you were to become prime minister, would be able to resist this group of people or institutions, whoever they are? And can I just say your last point is absolutely on point. And I can tell you for an absolute fact that a lot of people in Britain who still support Farage for all the reasons we said, no doubt a lot of people in Clacton are becoming increasingly cynical about Farage. I mean, you know, again, to repeat, this is not an electorate as some people in the media trying to make out that is foolish. and easily led by the nose. Anybody who knows anything about the British electorate knows that the absolute opposite is true.

They are making a tough-minded decision that, yes, Farage might be sleazier than he at one time appeared. He might indeed be very sleazy. They are saying to themselves also, Farage might, in the end, failed to deliver on what he's promising, just as Boris Johnson ultimately failed to deliver

on what he was promising. But at least he listens to us. At least he goes out and talks to us. At least he takes an interest in us. Perhaps he might not succeed. He might not do what we want. But he's at least worth a go, which is why they are continuing to support him.

Now about Burnham, I'm hearing all kinds of very strange and very interesting stories. first of all, you're absolutely right. Britain is a complete loser out of all of these plans and plots and strategies. There is an article today in the Daily Telegraph which says that the British Navy have told the government, have advised the government, that if the Russians, as they now say, are going to start seizing British ships in the Indo-Pacific region and elsewhere, the Royal Navy cannot protect them. It does not have the resources or the naval power any longer to take on the Russians. So, you know, that understanding does exist. There are people at high levels in Britain who are saying those things. It's also, I understand

the case that there is advice. being given to Burnham from various people within the Labour Party and connected to the Labour Party, or perhaps not just connected to the Labour Party, but sympathetic to, well, concerned about the situation in Britain, who are giving him exactly the advice that you say. In fact, I've heard that they're now starting to reach out and are seeking advice from more people from outside, which is something that never happened in Kirstarmer's Day. I have no, no expectation that this will change because, unfortunately, and this is the reality that has to be faced, there is, within the British establishment, a Europeanist faction. I think that is the way to describe them. Now, their obsession,

Their primary obsession is not Ukraine, obviously. Ukraine is something they use. To a great extent it is Russia, because there's a huge amount of history about Russia. But their biggest obsession is the EU, and their fixation is to get Britain back into the EU. And they are right across the civil service, they're right across the political system.

They are extremely strong. in the security and intelligence agencies. And they want to continue with all of these policies because they're prepared to burn everything down, provided somehow they can get Britain as close as possible to the EU in order eventually to get it back in. And they see the way to do that by continuing with all of these policies that we talked about.

about to show to the EU, which as we know, has a very, very strong anti-Russian faction within it, that they're every bit as anti-Russian as they are, even more so, in fact, and they're prepared to act as the leader in these policies. So anti-Russianism and pro-EUism in Britain are part of the same thing. Just the final question. Is it about the money, the funds that the EU has? Do they want to get their hands on all of the funds? I mean, Ursula has even opened up some of the defense funds to the UK. So they can get into that without being part of the EU. Of course, that means they have to do deals with project Ukraine to get their hands on the EU funds. Is it a money thing? Is it this establishment's desire to be part of the country? partnered up with Germany and France, because that's what you're talking about when you mentioned the EU. There's no other countries that are really running the European Union outside of France and Germany, and mainly Germany.

I mean, you talk about the European Union, what it is. It's a German structure. So is this what they want? They want to be in a deeper partnership with Germany, or is this about being a better vassal to the United States? Because it's a German structure, but at the end of the day, it's a German structure. that answers to the United States. All of those things. Firstly, there is an enormous amount of vanity and ego in all of this, in the sense that you've absolutely wanted to be invited to all the nice parties in Brussels and Berlin and Paris and those sort of places.

So there is that. I mean, you know, getting involved in all the big decisions that come with that. Secondly, getting back into the EU is a way of strengthening the relationship with the United States. The EU, as we've discussed, is a totally Atlantisist operation altogether. And there is a sense amongst the people we're talking about that a Britain in the EU, which is taking the lead within the EU, is somehow going to be more influential in Washington than it is if it is on its out because it has the rest of the EU behind it. And when the British Prime Minister comes to Washington and speaks to the president,

he can tell the president, look, I am your friend, I am close to you, I speak the same language as you, we have the same perspectives and traditions as you, but we're also within the EU. and we are the people who are going to successfully deliver and solidify the EU for you. So the idea is that positions Britain better to have more influence in Washington and in return to get more serious attention from Washington than Britain does by itself. And of course there is money. There's a huge issue of money. I mean, a lot of British politicians, I mean, their retirement plans involved getting elected to the European Parliament, where they get enormous salaries, or would have got enormous salaries, getting jobs in the European Commission. As I said, you failed in British politics, so you succeed in Brussels. I mean, it applied to them equally well.

there's all sorts of other positions and funds that you can access via the EU. As you know, my wife is an academic. I know the extent to which EU funding, EU contacts were important for some parts of the academic community for the university world. And of course, they want that all to resume. So absolutely, all of these things come together and it should not be discounted. And of course, they do have support among some sections of the wider British public, young people who want to get Erasmus scholarships and study in European cities, those kind of things.

So yes, for the establishment, it's power, it's money, it's influence in. Washington, and it's some support from a certain section of British society, which is the section that they are ultimately most in contact with. All right, we will end the video there, the durand.com. We're on X, we're on Rumble, we're on Telegram. We are also on substack. Go to Durant Shop, pick up some merch. We have a summer special going on.

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