Count Binface, Elmo and a man in a balaclava with baked beans printed on it have all had a moment of sunshine during this British election.
As has long been the tradition in Britain, the election features a variety of joke candidates who often take on prominent politicians. While it is clearly a bit of comic relief in a serious time, the candidates are still there to make a point: since the 1970s, they have set themselves the goal of bridge the gap between politics and ordinary people.
On election night, these prank candidates share the stage as they discover who the winner of their constituency is, including photos of the country’s new prime minister shaking hands with a man in a Elmo suit, without even blinking an eye.
You also get a photo of Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former minister who lost his seat to a Labour candidate on Thursday, standing next to a man in a baked bean balaclava.
And so you get an outgoing Prime Minister sharing the stage with a man dressed as a space trash can and Archibald Stanton from The Official Monster Raving Loony Party holding a ventriloquist’s dummy.
Count Binface — a perennial favourite who entered the political scene in 2018 and lost to Rishi Sunak on Thursday — wasn’t all that unhappy with the results, which saw him finish in sixth place. “My highest parliamentary vote ever,” said the self-proclaimed space politician wrote on social media.
