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.
Denne historien er fra June 05, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra June 05, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Ambitious Everton look for upgrade on the Dyche grind
Sean Dyche was never the manager Everton really wanted.
Everton ease to FA Cup win as team reboot starts
They are not used to cheering the men in the technical area.
THE ART OF NOISE
Alt-popper Ethel Cain lashes listeners with sound on her experimental second LP, 'Perverts'. Helen Brown submits
Kidman is utterly fearless in unabashedly sexy 'Babygirl'
Dutch writer-director Halina Reijn has made a BDSM film rife with fumbling uncertainty, and comedy-drama 'A Real Pain' manages to stay honest,
The secret shame that saw Callas retreat into obscurity
She was the opera diva with a tumultuous and tragic private life but something else would derail her career as one of the greatest singers of all time, as Meghan Lloyd Davies explains
At home with Gen Zzzzz
Being boring has never been more in - but Kate Rossiensky wonders if the humblebore lifestyle is a deflection technique
PLAYING DUMB
As the thoroughly decent (and rather smart) Kasim is ejected from 'The Traitors', Helen Coffey asks whether intelligence has become a hindrance that should be concealed at all costs
The woman who cried wolf and fuelled a local race war
When Ellie Williams told of her experience at the hands of a grooming gang, it seemed clear what was right vs wrong. But the truth, writes Zoë Beaty, was much more complicated...
Biden hails 'strength of character' in Carter tribute
Every living American president filed into pews at the Washington National Cathedral yesterday to honour one of their own at the funeral for Jimmy Carter, who died late last month at 100 years old.
Wake up and smell the fires
We live in a 'magic bubble' of denial but the LA infernos and Covid before it demonstrate why we must be better prepared
