A woman has been arrested after allegedly throwing a drink at Nigel Farage while he was launching his personal election campaign in Clacton. The leader of Reform UK had just finished a series of media interviews at a JD Wetherspoon pub when a woman appeared and threw a McDonald’s banana milkshake over his face and suit jacket. Essex police have arrested a 25-year-old woman on suspicion of assault during the incident, and a man was also detained on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker while the arrest was being made.
Mr Farage appeared to take the incident in good humour, later posing with a tray of four banana milkshakes in the nearby seaside village of Jaywick. Prior to the incident, he said that “you will no longer be ignored” as he spoke to a crowd on the Clacton-on-Sea seafront. Mr Farage previously said that he would not stand in the general election before reversing his position on Monday, announcing that he would be standing in the Essex seat.
The Tendring district, which includes the parliamentary constituency of Clacton, recorded a 69.5% vote in favour of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum. Clacton found itself centre stage in national politics in the run-up to that vote when former pro-Brexit Conservative MP Douglas Carswell defected to UKIP, prior to the referendum in 2014, and then resigned his seat before winning it for his new party in a by-election that year. The Conservative candidate, Giles Watling, won back the seat in 2017 with a 15,828 majority, and held it with an increased majority in the 2019 election. Farage previously led UKIP and the Brexit Party.
Labour candidate Jovan Owusu-Nepaul said Britain was “crying out for change” as the party fought for every seat. Mr Watling criticised Farage, saying he “doesn’t give two hoots” about the constituency: “This is all about Nigel, as ever. I don’t want to see the residents of Clacton-on-Sea taken for granted and sacrificed on the altar of his vanity.” Farage replied by saying the Tories should “pay a big price” for betraying the promises of Brexit.
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