Nigel Farage’s victory press conference was targeted by hecklers who accused him of being no friend to working people after his Reform party won four seats at Westminster overnight.
A total of seven people had to be escorted out of the venue. As one man started shouting at him, Mr Farage, famously a large drinker, asked him: “Are you downwind a couple already? You’ve had a bigger lunch than I have.”
He also questioning if they were actors – a nod to a Reform canvasser filmed using a racial slur to describe now former prime minister Rishi Sunak.
At the event, Mr Farage gave a “100% promise” to rid Reform UK of “bad apples”, after the party had to suspend multiple candidates during the election. But he claimed the result showed his party had triggered a “political earthquake”.
“We are going to be the opposition around the country,” he added.
He added: “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.
“You have a 100% promise on that.” And he said the party’s focus was now on going “after Labour votes”.
He added: “Old Labour was very, very patriotic. It believed in the country. It believed in its people. New Labour far less so.”
Breaking – more to follow
