On Tuesday, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was attacked on the campaign trail yet again, this time in the northern English town of Barnsley. While waving at the crowd from the upper level of an open-top bus, a far-left protestor began hurling rocks at him.
The 28-year-old suspect was promptly arrested on suspicion of public order offences. Farage later identified him as a member of a trade union.
Footage of the incident showed Farage's bus being pelted with what appeared to be objects from a construction site on the opposite side of the road. The suspect did not have very good aim, so Farage was not hit. Nonetheless, he was not pleased with the man's behaviour.
"I will not be bullied or cowed by a violent left-wing mob who hate our country," he wrote on X, thanking the South Yorkshire Police for their swift actions.
"Our democracy is under threat," Farage lamented in a follow-up post. "If I cannot campaign in the general election without the constant threat of violence then something has gone badly wrong." He said he would respond to the situation at an upcoming Reform UK meeting.
At that meeting, he said it was "not nice or pleasant to be subjected to violence," adding, "I'm not paid for that."
"I will not surrender," he added. "I will not give in to the mob. I'll go on fighting for what I believe to be right."
In an interview with Sky News, he reiterated that message. "I'm not a softie – you can say whatever you bloomin' like to me – but if you start chucking cement at me or chucking stone at me, it's very, very different."
The attack comes just days after he was hit with a milkshake by a suspected left-wing, Jeremy Corbyn-supporting OnlyFans model while campaigning in the seaside town of Clacton. She was also promptly arrested.
