Farage’s futile election gamble: inside the 21 August Guardian Weekly

Political stunt brings Reform UK leader full circle. Plus: Russia’s scramble for soldiers • Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your home address The curtain came down last week on the summer sideshow of the Clacton byelection, called by Nigel Farage amid mounting scrutiny of his finances. For our big story this week, Daniel Boffey explores what this campaign – in which the Reform UK leader’s main challenger was a parody candidate called Count Binface – tells us about the current state of…