NIGEL Farage has said he nearly ended up in hospital after “cement” was hurled at him on the election campaign trail today.
The Reform UK leader was on top of a party battle bus in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, when he was pelted by a yob.
Nigel Farage has said he nearly ended up in hospital after ‘cement’ was hurled at him[/caption]
The man in a red hoodie could be heard shouting ‘Scum, scum, scum’[/caption]
The Reform UK leader was on top of a party battle bus when he was pelted by a yob[/caption]
The man in a red hoodie could be heard shouting “Scum, scum, scum” from a work site below.
Workmen appeared to then haul the man from the site and he ran off, before police officers tackled him.
When asked by The Sun how he was feeling, Farage said: “That was pretty nasty this morning.
“Had I got off that bus, I’d probably be in hospital. That’s how nasty this is.
“I had a similar incident that took place last week on Tuesday. There is an attempt to shut me down.
“There is an attempt by a violent left-wing mob, who by the way, didn’t come from Barnsley.
“They have names like Jocasta and Sebastian, and Mummy and Daddy are very rich, and they live in Cheshire and Surrey.
“And they’re the sort of people who go on Just Stop Oil protests and all the rest of it.
“And look, you know, I am so used to it. I’ve lived with this longer than anybody.
“But it’s funny, you see, when it was happening to me, no-one gave a damn.
“When it happens to politicians in the Labour or Conservative Party, everybody says, this is incredible.
“Well, I’m just supposed to take it. Well, you know what?
“I am not going to let a bunch of students, whose brains have been poisoned at university, with their left-wing ethos, close down democratic debate in this country.
TONY PARSONS
WHEN Nigel Farage had a milkshake thrown in his face by some smirking pea-brain, it went down a storm in the loony bin of Labour's Left.
“A work of art!” crowed one Corbynista commentator.
The social media platforms of Stand Up To Racism — president, Diane Abbott — were awash with emojis weeping with helpless laughter.
And you can’t help but wonder.
Would a milkshake thrown in, say, Diane Abbott’s face be equally amusing? Of course not. That would be outrageous!
But we have been here before.
“I’m thinking, why bother with a milkshake when you could get some battery acid?” quipped comedian Jo Brand on BBC Radio 4 in 2019.
The BBC later ruled that Brand’s “joke” about throwing battery acid in a politician’s face “went beyond what was appropriate” — no kidding! — but “was not intended to be taken seriously”.
But in a country where politicians of both major parties have been murdered in recent years, Brand’s comments sounded like an incitement to violence.
In a land where the memory of Labour’s Jo Cox — shot three times in 2016 — and the Conservatives’ David Amess, stabbed in 2021, is still raw, making light of a physical assault on any politician should turn the stomach.
It is the pious hypocrisy that stinks.
It is the craven double-standards.
I carry no candle for Reform UK.
Every vote for Nigel Farage’s protest party is an act of national self-harm. Reform will reform nothing.
Your vote for Reform means that we will be ruled for five years — or ten — by Keir Starmer and his high-taxing, knee-taking comrades.
But the bullying of Farage sickens me.
This ritual humiliation is counter- productive.
Is throwing a milkshake in Farage’s face meant to make him crawl away?
Not going to happen, comrade.
That milkshake has now sealed Farage’s success with voters.
The bookies — always the most reliable political pundits — say Farage is odds-on to become the MP for Clacton at the General Election.
And with Reform neck-and-neck with the Tories in the polls, Farage can afford to laugh it off — cheerfully raising a McDonald’s milkshake in salute, as if it was a pint of his beloved IPA.
I believe the rise of Reform will be harmful for this country.
If the patriotic, pro-business Right is divided, the patriotic, pro-business Right surely will certainly be defeated.
If, as the polls suggest, all those disappointed working-class former Tory voters defect to Reform, then they will soon be living under a Labour Government that they will despise with all their hearts.
I don’t think Reform are going to bury the Conservative Party at this election or any other.
Because I suspect that the talent base of Reform is wafer-thin and their motley crew of colourful candidates will look a lot less appealing in close-up.
But that pea-brain’s milkshake has ensured that Reform will have at least one MP.
“If they think they can frighten me, they’re wrong.”
Farage said he believes the objects were some wet cement and a coffee cup.
He posted the footage on X, formerly Twitter, saying: “My huge thanks to South Yorkshire Police today.
“I will not be bullied or cowed by a violent left-wing mob who hate our country.”
Farage had been warned by police not to get off the bus.
When asked if those throwing things at politicians should go to prison, he said: “Should that guy this morning chucking concrete and others chucking rocks, should they be given just some tiny fine and let off?
“The answer must be no.”
A group of builders who intervened told the Mail the man had left a nearby pro-refugee protest.
Paul Stott, 52, said: “The man in a red hoodie was standing with the protestors at one point and then came over here.
“We turned him out of the compound. He then ran off but the police moved in quickly and grabbed him.
“There were tools here and our main concern was that the public should not be in this compound.”
Farage has now pledged to change his “modus operandi” on campaigning after the two attacks.
On how it is affecting how he interacts with the public, he said: “I’ve been doing this forever, as you know, I’ve been doing this forever.
“And there have been incidents over the years that have happened, and they’ve not been a bundle of fun, but they were incidents, they were isolated incidents.
“They were horrible.
“But now I just want to get this horrible feeling that this is just an attempt to shut me down. So what do I do? If I give in to these people, who the hell else is going to stand up?
“I’m sometimes brave to the point of total stupidity. I’m very worried about it. I’m genuinely very, very thoughtful now.”
He added: “I’m not going to stop but my modus operandi may have to change.”
It comes after Victoria Thomas-Bowen, 25, was charged with assault by beating and criminal damage.
A milkshake was thrown over Farage as he left the Moon and Starfish Wetherspoons pub in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex on Tuesday last week.
Farage was seen with the yellow drink splattered across his dark blue suit as he boarded his campaign bus.
Thomas-Bowen is due to appear before Colchester Magistrates’ Court on July 2.
During a campaign walkabout in Newcastle in 2019, Farage had a £5.25 Five Guys banana and salted caramel milkshake thrown at him.
South Yorkshire Police said: “We have arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of public order offences following disorder in Barnsley town centre today.
“It is believed that the man threw objects from a nearby construction area.
“A suspect was quickly detained and remains in police custody.”
The yob was pictured appearing to throw wet cement at Farage[/caption]
A man, 28, was arrested by cops[/caption]
Farage had banana milkshake lobbed at him last week[/caption]
