Farage launches 'revolution' from end of Clacton pier

Reform UK leader soaked in milkshake but unstirred

- DAVID MADDOX

British Nigel Farage launched his eighth bid to become an MP yesterday, promising a "revolution" that will shake up politics and laughing off an incident in which an unimpressed voter threw a banana milkshake over him.

The Reform UK leader launched his campaign in front of cheering crowds on Clacton pier in Essex, a day after he announced his return to frontline politics. The event - which was open to members of the public, who attended in their hundreds crowding into the street, lining footbridges and slopes around the launch - contrasted hugely with the stage-managed events of Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.

But a young woman throwing what appeared to be a banana milkshake in his face after he completed his media round revealed that not everyone in the Essex seaside town welcomed him and illustrated the dangers of being so exposed. There was also a small protest at the back of the crowd as he delivered his speech with demonstrators holding a sign saying he was not welcome.

Before the milkshake attack, a buoyant Mr Farage had been riding on the crest of a wave of adulation from a town which was once held by Ukip MP Daniel Carswell and voted 73 per cent for Brexit in 2016.

Speaking to journalists in the Moon and Starfish Wetherspoons pub, he made it clear that Clacton was the first step in a plan to replace the Conservative Party. He said: "It's over, it's done, let's all grow up, there is no election, Labour are going to win.