Costumed UK Candidates Shape Election Debate Despite £500 Deposit Rule
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Jun 19
Costumed UK Candidates Shape Election Debate Despite £500 Deposit Rule
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Jun 19
Summary
Makerfield's by-election again put Britain's costume-candidate tradition on display, with Count Binface, a fox-suited wildlife campaigner and Howling Laud Hope sharing the stage with Labour winner Andy Burnham.
Rob Pownall said he ran as a fox to push wildlife protection, using the campaign to press Burnham on ending fox hunting and the badger cull rather than to chase votes.
Count Binface and Hope framed the spectacle as satire with policy aims: Binface mixed jokes such as £2 Wigan kebabs with criticism of mayoral career moves, while Hope's Monster Raving Loony Party has fielded more than 200 candidates.
That fringe tradition has sometimes outlasted the joke, with Loony Party campaigns for all-day pub opening later reflected in 2005 law and its long-running push for votes at 16 now partly adopted in Scotland, Wales and a Labour bill.
Britain still requires a £500 deposit and a 5% vote threshold to get it back, but even a 1985 crackdown failed to deter novelty candidates, whose presence has become a durable part of UK political discourse.