Two people have been arrested after Nigel Farage had a milkshake thrown over him

Two people have been arrested after Nigel Farage had a milkshake thrown over him while launching his personal election campaign in Clacton. The Reform UK leader was leaving a pub after carrying out media interviews when a woman appeared to hurl a McDonald's banana milkshake over his face and suit jacket. Essex Police said a 25-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of assault. While making the arrest, the force said a man was also detained on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker. "Both individuals remain in custody for questioning," a police spokesperson said.

The politician was walking out of the Moon & Starfish - part of the JD Wetherspoon pub chain run by prominent Brexiteer Tim Martin - to the Reform UK party bus at the time. Mr Farage, who had a milkshake thrown over him in Newcastle upon Tyne in 2019, appeared to make light of the incident later, posing with a tray of four milkshakes in the nearby village of Jaywick. The 60-year-old previously said he would not stand in the general election, before making a U-turn on Monday, when he announced his candidacy in the Essex seat. 

The constituency, which became the first seat in the UK to elect a UK Independence Party (UKIP) MP in 2014, had a Conservative majority of 24,702 at the last general election in 2019 when Giles Watling was re-elected. Prior to the milkshake incident, Mr Farage said "you will no longer be ignored" as he spoke on the seafront. "I hope that having a national figure representing this constituency will put Clacton on the map," said Mr Farage, who is formerly the leader of UKIP and the Brexit Party. "I will stand up and fight for you... send me to Parliament to be a bloody nuisance."

He added that the promises of Brexit had been "betrayed" and the Conservatives should "pay a big price" for that. The Tendring district, which includes the parliamentary constituency, voted 69.5% in favor of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum and Clacton found himself center stage in national politics in the run-up. Clacton's former pro-Brexit Conservative MP Douglas Carswell defected to UKIP in 2014, resigned his seat and then won it for his new party in a by-election that year - and retained it in the general election in 2015.