The general election results are in and Labour has won a majority after gaining more than 400 seats, seeing Sir Keir Starmer become the next Prime Minister.
The Conservatives faced their biggest defeat in history, with a loss of more than 240 seats, while the Liberal Democrats gained some 63 seats.
The general election saw a mix of candidates from big party members to quirky independent hopefuls.
From Count Binface and Captain Beany, to Elmo and a pub in Richmond, here is how the quirky General Election candidates have fared in the count.
How did the quirky general election candidates do?
Count Binface
Count Binface, a self-described intergalactic space warrior, was gunning for Rishi Sunak’s constituency seat in Richmond and Northallerton, pledging to voters in his manifesto to introduce national service for former prime ministers and invite European countries to join the UK.
While Mr Sunak retained his seat with 23,059 votes, the Count, running for the Count Binface Party came sixth in the poll, following Green Party candidate Kevin Foster, with 308 votes from constituents.
Binface wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that it was his “highest ever finish” in an election and his “highest ever parliamentary vote”, saying “#BindependenceDay has come”.
My highest ever finish. 6th
— Count Binface (@CountBinface) July 5, 2024
My highest ever parliamentary vote. 308
My highest height advantage. 2ft 6in#BindependenceDay has come. pic.twitter.com/InPXEyBRd3
Niko Omilana
Youtuber Niko Omilana went against Mr Sunak for the North Yorkshire constituency seat.
While Mr Sunak gave a speech following the declaration of the count in Northallerton, independent candidate Mr Omilana held an “L” printed on a piece of paper behind his head.
Mr Omilana earned 160 votes, coming in eighth place behind Count Binface and fellow independent candidate Brian Richmond.
Elmo
Another weird and wonderful Westminster-hopeful who set their sights on the seat of a party leader was Elmo, otherwise known as Bobby “Elmo” Smith, who zeroed in on Sir Keir Starmer’s constituency seat in Holborn and St Pancras.
While the independent candidate came in 12th place in the results, earning the least amount of votes at 19, social media users enjoyed seeing his red costume next to Sir Keir on stage during the Labour leader’s victory speech.
Captain Beany
Captain Beany, who stood as an independent in the General Election and who started out in politics in 1991, came sixth place in the constituency, beating Heritage Party candidate Rhiannon Morrissey.
The Richmond Pub
Another unlikely candidate throughout the campaign was that of a pub in Richmond, running under the party of The Mitre TW9 – the name of the hostelry.
Candidate and pub landlord Chris French, who previously told the PA news agency that he put himself forward to stand in Richmond Park to “get the free advertising on 77,000 ballot papers”, received 349 votes in the count.
Mr French, who said he would be “absolutely chuffed” if he got at least 5% of the vote because this would mean the £500 deposit candidates are required to pay would be returned to him, fell sort of the threshold with 0.7%.
However, Mr French and his pub came sixth, beating Social Democratic Party candidate Richard Harrison by more than 100 votes.
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King Arthur Pendragon
Last, but by no means least, senior druid King Arthur Pendragon graced voters in Salisbury, Wiltshire, for the fifth time on during this year’s campaign.
Independent candidate Mr Pendragon, who previously told PA that he wanted to bring “spirituality” and the virtues of “truth, honour and justice” to politics, also came sixth in the constituency with 458 votes.
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