Nigel Farage’s press conference ‘thrown into chaos’ as he’s heckled
Footage shared on social media showed Nigel Farage standing silently while around seven hecklers bombarded him with allegations of bigotry and racism (X: breeallegretti)
Nigel Farage’s first press conference following the general election on 4 July was disrupted when he was heckled by a group of protesters who took it in turns to shout accusations at the Reform UK leader.
Farage’s Reform UK party won four seats in the general election, despite a Channel 4 exposé that showed Reform UK campaigners in Nigel Farage’s seat in Clacton using extreme racist and homophobic language.
Farage arrived at his victory event on 5 July to dance music and a standing ovation from supporters, according to the Daily Mail, however hecklers were quick to make themselves known. Video clips shared online show one man shouting accusations of bigotry and racism at Farage; he was quickly escorted out.
Another man then calls Reform UK “Tories in disguise” and is similarly removed from the venue. A third is heard shouting “people like you are no friend to the working class”, as he’s dragged to the exit.
Farage repeatedly shouted “boring” in response to the various heckles.
According to reports, a total of seven people had to be escorted out of the venue.
On June 28, Channel 4 secretly joined canvassers for Nigel Farage in Clacton, and recorded hidden camera footage that showed his team espousing extreme racist views.
The investigation by the broadcaster focused on a Reform canvasser named Andrew Parker, who went on the campaign trail with an undercover Channel 4 reporter. During a conversation with the reporter, he used racist slurs, reportedly describing former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as a “f**king p***”.
“I’ve always been a Tory voter,” Parker reportedly told the investigator. “But what annoys me is that f**king p*** we’ve got in. What good is he? He’s… f**king useless.”
He also reportedly called Islam a “cult”, suggested that the army should use refugees coming to the UK in small boats as “target practice”, and said, “we’re f**king kicking all the Muslims out of the mosques and turning them into Wetherspoons.”
Following the scandal, Mr Farage said: “Above all what we’re going to do from today is we’re going to professionalise the party, we’re going to democratise the party, and those few bad apples that have crept in will be gone, will be long gone, and we will never have any of their type back in our organisation.”
In June, Nigel Farage launched Reform UK’s manifesto for the general election and has pledged to “ban transgender ideology” in schools, including stopping social transitioning.
“No gender questioning, social transitioning or pronoun swapping. Inform parents of under 16s
about their children’s life decisions,” the pledges read. It is not clear how Reform UK would enforce this policy and how it would stop people using certain pronouns.
