Brexit leader Nigel Farage fond of milkshakes during election campaign

Nigel Farage, who successfully led the bid to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union in 2016, was attacked with a milkshake on Tuesday on the first day of campaigning for parliament.

Photographers captured the incident in the seaside town of Clacton, where the newly appointed leader of right-wing populist party Reform UK was leaving a pub after giving interviews to the media.

Politico, who spoke to Farage after the incident, said the beverage was a “banana-flavored milkshake from McDonald’s” that “soaked his hair, face and parts of his clothing.”

“It was done quite violently. It wouldn’t have happened to Keir Starmer, it wouldn’t have happened to Rishi Sunak,” he told the outlet, referring to other U.K. party leaders. “You know why, they don’t go out and meet hundreds of people and that’s the risk of doing that.”

Essex Police told the BBC that a 25-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of the attack.

Shortly after the incident, Farage – who has been running on a largely anti-immigration platform – was photographed joking with a tray of McDonald’s milkshakes in nearby Jaywick.

The inspiration for throwing the milkshake on Tuesday may have come from a man who did the same thing to Farage during the election campaign in 2019. That time, it was a banana and salted caramel milkshake from Five Guys.

Paul Crowther, who was arrested over the incident, told The Guardian at the time: “I was looking forward to it, but I think it was done for a better purpose.”

This is Farage’s eighth time contesting to become a member of parliament. None of his attempts have been successful. He announced his eighth campaign on Monday, despite previously saying he would not contest the election.