Emily Maitlis shows US voters how the UK does politics after Marjorie Taylor Greene spat

As The News Agents journalist Emily Maitlis continues to go viral online for her expert handling of Marjorie Taylor Greene telling her to “f*** off”, the former BBC broadcaster addressed her US followers by sharing the video of Count Binface.

This year’s London mayoral election is just a few months away now, and that means the level of party political campaigning is getting out of this world – well, certainly for beloved satirical politician Count Binface, who’s released a “party political broadcast” to help fund his candidacy.

“This is how we stand for elected office in the UK,” Maitlis wrote when sharing the video.

Election rules mean those wishing to stand in May’s election have to fork out £10,000 as a deposit in order to be on the ballot paper, and Binface has launched a GoFundMe to help him get his foot – or rather, bin – in the door.

On Thursday, Binface released a video parodying the hit song “You To Me Are Everything” by The Real Thing, outlining some of the policies he’d implement if he becomes mayor and calling on fans to lend him their support.

He sings: “I will bring the price of croissants down for you / rename London Bridge for Phoebe Waller too.

“2024’s an opportunity / to show the world the wonders of democracy. Putin, Trump and Xi would throw it all in the abyss / but the British system still allows us all to take the p***.

“I’ll fix the bridge at Hammersmith / I’ll help folks off the street / I’ll fit Suella’s limousine with five ejector seats.”

On the accompanying GoFundMe outlining his plans for “Bindependence Day”, Binface says he’ll stand as a constituency member in the Greater London Authority at £1,000, a London-wide candidate at £5,000, and stand for mayor if he reaches the £10,000 target by 27 March.

He added any excess money would be donated to the homeless charity Shelter.

At the time of writing, he’s already had more than £6,400 in donations, within mere hours of the crowdfunder going live.

And people love the video:

Of course, it’s not the first time Count Binface has stood for elected office, as he contested Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat in the 2019 general election and walked away with 69 votes, coming seventh out of 12 candidates.

Two years later he tried his luck at becoming the Mayor of London, being one of the 20 hopefuls listed on the ballot paper in what was the largest number of mayoral candidates since the creation of the Greater London Authority.

In an election which also saw YouTubers Max Fosh and Niko Omilana throw their hats into the ring, Count Binface finished ninth with 24,775 first preference votes, beating the likes of Piers Corbyn and Ukip.

He tried to win the seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip again in 2023 following Johnson’s resignation, but ended up with 190 votes, placing him eighth out of 17 candidates.

He still managed to beat Corbyn and Ukip again, though.

However, unlike his last attempt at becoming London mayor, which relied on a preferential voting system, the 2024 election will use the ‘first-past-the-post’ system we all know about from general elections, thanks to changes introduced in the same Elections Act 2022 which brought about voter identification.

On this, Count Binface writes: “The UK government have been very quiet about this but they've sneakily changed the voting system for London in 2024.

“Whereas before voters were given two choices, the next election will be 'first past the post', which I assume they've done to help the so-called 'mainstream' candidates.

“Help me beat them at their own game, and put dirty politics in the bin!”

Godspeed, Binface.

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