Novelty Candidates in UK Elections
Andy Burnham successfully won the Makerfield by-election yesterday, returning him to the House of Commons as a member of Parliament after holding the position of Mayor of Manchester for the past nine years. Prior to this, Burnham was Labour MP for Leigh from 2001 and 2017. He served in both the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown administrations and has held such senior governmental posts as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Secretary of State for Health. His return to Parliamentary politics is likely to result in a leadership challenge to incumbent Prime Minister Keir Starmer. When speaking after winning yesterday’s by-election Burnham spoke of “a final chance for change” the current trajectory of the present Labour Government. However, I don’t wish to focus on any of this at present. I am far more interested in the above picture, taken as the results were announced and what it says about UK politics.
Andy Burnham successfully won the Makerfield by-election yesterday, returning him to the House of Commons as a member of Parliament after holding the position of Mayor of Manchester for the past nine years. Prior to this, Burnham was Labour MP for Leigh from 2001 and 2017. He served in both the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown administrations and has held such senior governmental posts as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Secretary of State for Health. His return to Parliamentary politics is likely to result in a leadership challenge to incumbent Prime Minister Keir Starmer. When speaking after winning yesterday’s by-election Burnham spoke of “a final chance for change” the current trajectory of the present Labour Government. However, I don’t wish to focus on any of this at present. I am far more interested in the above picture, taken as the results were announced and what it says about UK politics.
If you live outside of the UK you may be somewhat surprised by the fact that there are often novelty candidates at UK by-elections. Politics is usually steeped in formal trappings in most modern democracies. Candidates strive to project a no nonsense demeanour and similarly wish their policies to be perceived in the same way. Frivolity, joviality and rank stupidity are the opposite sentiments that political candidates wish to project. Yet here in the UK, all by-elections will have a percentage of novelty or niche market candidates who are there to add a degree of fun and light-heartedness to what are otherwise rather serious proceedings. Some candidates, representing traditional political parties, will balk or appear uncomfortable with this sort of triviality. More season campaigners understand that it has become part of the UK electoral tradition and its best to roll with it all. Hence you’ll find the successful candidate standing next to the someone from the “Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid Party”.
The presence of novelty or satirical candidates in UK by-elections is primarily due to the country's relatively low barriers to entry for parliamentary candidacy and the unique platform that by-elections provide. To stand as a candidate in a UK parliamentary election, an individual generally only needs to meet three basic criteria. Be at least 18 years old. Be a British citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, or a citizen of a Commonwealth country with indefinite leave to remain in the UK. Submit a nomination form signed by 10 registered voters from that constituency and pay a £500 deposit. The deposit is returned if the candidate receives a certain percentage of the vote (typically 5%). However, for many novelty candidates the deposit is often viewed as a “fee” to access a platform to broadcast their message or gain media attention. It is by far the most cost effective means to gain television airtime and access to the mainstream journalists.
Because by-elections often attract intense media scrutiny, serve as a barometer for public sentiment toward the government and are unique, singular events, they provide a desirable media platform. Novelty candidates can use this to satirise politics, critique what they see as hypocrisy and draw attention to issues that major parties ignore. Some candidates use the ballot paper as a vehicle for a single-issue protest or as a symbolic rejection of the “two-party” system. The novelty of a candidate in a costume or with a bizarre name often garners more press coverage than a serious independent candidate, allowing them to broadcast their message to a wider audience than they could through traditional campaigning. Note how in the case of Andy Burnham winning yesterday, when he took to the stage to make his speech he found that the only space available, strategically place him in between Count Binface and Rob Pownhall from Protect British Wildlife.
Novelty candidates and parties are not unique to UK politics. There is a history of them in Canada, Iceland and Denmark. Sadly, US politics seems somewhat more po-faced and I suspect that India and several South American countries are similarly formal. The UK, however has a long, historical tradition of mocking all its most hallowed institutions including elections. From Hogarth engravings to Charles Dickens. I suspect that the greatest inspirations for a lot of the modern novelty candidates stems from the classic 1970 Monty Python sketch “Election Night Special” in which there was an ongoing political insurgency from the Silly Party. Considering the polarised and more febrile nature of UK politics at present and the resurgence of nationalism, I think more than ever the injection of some humour is not only welcome but frankly necessary to keep things civil. Plus it’s worth reading the policies on Count Binface’s website. Some of them are quite sound.
