Nigel Farage was given a drink after launching his election campaign in Essex.
The new leader of Reform UK was leaving the Wetherspoons Moon and Starfish pub in Clacton, where he is standing to be an MP, when a young woman in a gray hooded jumper threw a drink in his face, threw the glass at him and walked away.
It appeared to be a McDonald’s milkshake.
He was seen wincing as the liquid hit his face and then wiped it away as he was moved out of the way by his team.
Photo: PA
Just hours earlier, he had launched his election campaign after announcing he would stand as the UK’s Reform candidate on Monday.
Last week, he said he ruled out the possibility of being a deputy. He has already tried, unsuccessfully, to become a deputy seven times.
Richard Tice, who Farage replaced as Reform leader on Monday, defended his successor.
“The juvenile idiot who threw a drink at Nigel just won us hundreds of thousands of more votes,” he wrote on social media.
“We will not be intimidated or threatened outside of the campaign.”
Giles Watling, the Conservative candidate in Clacton, said he was sorry his rival threw a drink at him.
“We may disagree, but every candidate has the right to campaign without fear of violence or intimidation!” he added.
Former Conservative minister and lawyer Robert Jenrick said it was “clearly a criminal offence” and said there “can be no place for this type of behavior towards any candidate from any political party campaigning”.
Nigel Farage after being doused in milkshake during a campaign walk in Newcastle in 2019. Photo: PA
It’s not the first time Farage has received a milkshake.
In May 2019, Paul Crowther, from Newcastle, doused the then Brexit Party leader with a £5.25 banana and salted caramel milkshake from burger chain Five Guys during a walk in Newcastle city center before European elections.
He was arrested at the scene and pleaded guilty to common assault and criminal damage, and was ordered to pay Mr Farage £350 in compensation to have his suit cleaned after the “politically motivated attack”.
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