Nigel Farage was dramatically splattered with milkshake today as he launched his bid to become an MP.
The new Reform leader was drenched by a woman after being mobbed by crowds in what he described as the ‘most patriotic’ town in Britain.
The incident has echoes of 2019, when he fell victim to a similar attack in Newcastle.
Mr Farage was flanked as usual by burly security as he left the local Wetherspoons pub, but they could do nothing as the woman flung the contents of what appeared to be a McDonald’s cup towards him. It caught him full in the face, although he merely wiped his eyes and continued.
It came after the Brexit champion told a huge crowd of local voters the Tories had ‘betrayed’ their trust and warned Rishi Sunak would pay a ‘big price’ at the general election on 4 July.
Shouts from the crowd included ‘get ’em Nige’ and ‘we love you Nigel’ as huge numbers of Mr Farage’s supporters gathered near Clacton pier.
Mr Farage’s campaign launch in the Essex seat came after he yesterday performed a stunning U-turn on his previous decision not to stand for Parliament.
The 60-year-old has made a dramatic return to the political frontline and also been installed as Reform UK leader in place of Richard Tice.
In 2019 Mr Farage was hit with a banana milkshake while banging the drum for the Brexit Party. His assailant was later ordered to carry out community work and pay £350 in compensation.
Do YOU know who the milkshake thrower is? Email [email protected]
The woman, who would only say her name was Victoria, told reporters: ‘He doesn’t stand for me, he doesn’t represent anything I believe in, or any of the people around here.’
Richard Tice, Mr Farage’s predecessor as Reform UK leader, said: ‘The juvenile moron who threw a drink over Nigel has just gained us hundreds of thousands more votes.
‘We will not be bullied or threatened off the campaign trail.’
Mr Farage’s campaign in Clacton – a constituency once held by Ukip when he was the party’s leader – will be his eighth attempt to enter Westminster.
He will need to overturn a 31,000 Conservative majority from the last election with only minor boundary changes in the seat.
However, Tories have been sounding gloomy about their prospects and pollsters believe Mr Farage is in with a strong chance.
Grumbling has been surfacing about Rishi Sunak’s failure to head off the threat of Mr Farage standing, with suggestions he should have been given a peerage before.
The developments have heaped more pressure on Mr Sunak ahead of a head-to-head debate tonight where he is seen as having to land blows on Keir Starmer. More polls today have shown Labour on track for a massive landslide on July 4.
As he launched his campaign at the Moon and Starfish this afternoon, Mr Farage made reference to the town’s past support for Ukip when it elected Tory defector Douglas Carswell as the local MP.
He said: ‘Without Clacton, Brexit would not have happened – so thank you Clacton!’
Mr Farage vowed to be a ‘bloody nuisance’ in the House of Commons should he be elected in a month’s time.
Speaking at the rally in Clacton, Mr Farage said the Tories deserved to be punished for their ‘betrayal’ over Brexit.
The Reform UK leader said: ‘We made an offer to the British people, we could get back our independence and control of our borders.
‘But what has happened? The Conservatives have betrayed that trust. They’ve opened up the borders to mass immigration like we’ve never seen before.
‘And they deserve to pay a price for that, a big price for that.’
Mr Farage earlier called for the UK to have ‘zero’ net migration and defended controversial comments about Muslims.
The newly-installed Reform UK leader, who has sent Conservatives panicking with his return to the political frontline, said immigration had ‘exploded’ in recent years.
The Brexiteer insisted certain sectors of the economy would have to put up with shortages in a bid to reduce the number of arrivals into the country.
Mr Farage claimed this would drive up wages and ‘encourage people to learn skills rather than heading off to university and doing social sciences’.
He also risked stirring up a fresh row this morning in a fiery clash with BBC Radio 4 Today presenter Mishal Husain.
Mr Farage doubled down on his view that a growing number of British Muslims ‘do not subscribe to British values’, which has been branded ‘ignorant and offensive’.
He also defended claims that there are some streets in Britain where ‘no one speaks English’.
Challenged about his remarks, Mr Farage replied: ‘I could take you streets in Oldham right now where no one speaks English.’
But he declined to comment on whether his own children spoke a second language, when asked how he knew people in Oldham were not multilingual.
The 60-year-old has vowed to lead a ‘political revolt’ against the Tories and Labour after his bombshell announcement that he will lead Reform for the next five years.
In a round of interviews today, Mr Farage launched a direct attack on the Tories over immigration numbers and firmly ruled out a pact with Rishi Sunak’s party.
He told the BBC: ‘We have been betrayed by a Conservative Party that I gave considerable help to in 2019.
‘We were told that we would get control of our borders, we were told the immigration numbers would come down, they have exploded.
‘I feel betrayed by them, millions of voters feel betrayed by them.’
Mr Farage claimed the Tories were ‘well past their sell-by-date, the brand is ruined, they’ve lost the election already’.
He added: ‘We cannot go on as we are – we have to limit numbers.
‘Our lives, our quality of life in this country, is being diminished by the population explosion.
‘And if that means that in some sectors there’d be shortages, what that then means is wages will go up and we’d start to encourage people to learn skills rather than heading off to university and doing social sciences.’
Mr Farage stated his aim was to have ‘net migration at zero’, which would allow ‘room within the labour market for up to 600,000 people’ to come to Britain each year.
Latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics suggested that 1.2 million people migrated into the UK last year and 532,000 people emigrated from it.
This left a net migration figure of 685,000 for 2023.
In a later interview, Mr Farage suggested his long-term aim was to effectively take over the Conservative Party.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain he could not stand for or seek to lead the Conservative Party ‘as they currently are’.
But he added: ‘You can speculate as to what’ll happen in three or four years’ time, all I will tell you is if Reform succeed in the way that I think they can, then a chunk of the Conservative Party will join us – it’s the other way around.’
He pointed to Canada, where ‘Reform did a reverse takeover of the Conservative Party, rebranded it and Stephen Harper – who was elected as a Reform MP – became the Canadian prime minister for 10 years’.
He said: ‘I don’t want to join the Conservative Party, I think the better thing to do would be to take it over.’
Mr Farage last night used an op-ed for The Telegraph to argue that Britons are ‘furious’ at how both Labour and the Conservatives have approached immigration.
He added there is also ‘deep anger’ at the rate at which public services are ‘disintegrating’.
Home Secretary James Cleverly this morning sought to play down the impact of Mr Farage’s decision to stand in the election.
‘The last time I heard him make reference to Clacton, he was saying that he didn’t want to spend every Friday in Clacton,’ the Cabinet minister told Sky News.
‘Reform has always been a vehicle for Nigel Farage’s self-promotion, I think Richard Tice is now discovering that rather painfully.’