Man in fox costume joins race to unseat Nigel Farage in Clacton by-election

A human fox is joining the fight to dump Nigel Farage as an MP at the Clacton by-election.

The ‘man in a fox costume’ will join Count Binface in an effort to unseat the Reform UK leader.

Wildlife campaigner Rob Pownall, 27, will don his famous fox outfit once more and run a campaign against Farage’s personal record on animal wildlife and hunting.

Farage resigned as an MP to contest his Clacton seat in what he said was a bid to prove his popularity after a string of scandals over his finances.

However, the by-election has descended into a farce after all the major parties refused to stand and Count Binface’s plans to run dominated headlines.

Now Pownall, founder of Protect the Wild, has told he will throw his hat into the ring dressed up as a fox.

The campaigner already raised eyebrows standing as a giant gannet in the Scottish Parliament election and also ran as a fox at the Makerfield by-election against Andy Burnham.

Pownall told: ‘The storyline of this by-election is one of the most famous politicians of a generation standing for parliament against a man with a bin on his head.

‘Now he is going to have to do the same with a man in a fox costume. It is funny and silly.

‘But the difference between me and Count Binface is there is a serious cause behind what I am doing.’

Indeed, the ‘fox man’ is making this contest personal to Farage and his policies on animal welfare and wildlife.

Pownall said: ‘The framing of this whole election is Farage vs the establishment. That pisses me off beyond belief.

‘You cannot get any more establishment than Farage, who supports fox hunting.

‘How can you claim to be this man of the people, when he supports pastimes that involve ripping apart animals?’

Farage branded ministers ‘authoritarian control freaks’ over plans to ban trail hunting, and he even attended a hunt last Christmas.

Trail hunting sees a scent laid out for the hunt to follow rather than a real animal.

But campaigners say the practice still sees foxes torn to shreds by dogs.

Pownall also fears Farage would support other blood sports such as bird shooting.

He points to Reform’s 2024 manifesto ‘Our Contract with You’, where the party pledged to protect ‘country sports’, which he claims is an industry euphemism for hunting and shooting.

Reform also pledged at the last election to scrap over 6,700 retained EU laws, including those on the environment.

Pownall said this would endanger regulations that protect the UK’s most important wildlife sites and species.

The environmental activist is also opposed to Reform’s pledge to scrap the UK’s net zero targets and commitments and fast-track North Sea oil and gas licences.

Pownall added: ‘I am standing to ensure British wildlife gets a voice. This is a good opportunity to put these issues on the map.’

Pownall says he has a more serious message than Count Binface at this election, even if he thinks a Binface victory would be funny

The campaigner has admitted he is ‘burnt out’ after fighting two other elections in three months and will do ‘as little as possible’ in the Clacton campaign.

Pownall also said it would be ‘funny’ if Count Binface won the vote, which is looking increasingly likely, according to polls.

The man dressed as a fox is not to be confused with Laurence Fox, the controversial Reclaim Party candidate standing in the same by-election.

Media can also reveal that Howling Laud Hope, the leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party, will also be standing in the contest next month.

Farage announced he would resign as MP for Clacton earlier this week to force the by-election, in which he will stand to ‘stick two fingers up to the entire establishment’.

He shared the news in a lengthy speech in which he took aim at the media and Parliament for investigating his financial dealings and, he alleges, targeting his family.

The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is currently looking into allegations he did not properly declare a ‘gift’ of £5 million from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in January 2024.

In recent weeks, he has also faced questions about his five properties around England and his links to criminal aristocrat George Cottrell.

The Labour Party has also asked the Electoral Commission to investigate whether Farage broke electoral law by failing to declare gifts from Cottrell.

A Sunday Times investigation published on Sunday said Cottrell personally hired people to build up Farage’s social media prescence, which was then used to champion Reform UK.