I used to be on Bob Geldof’s boat when he tried to break Nigel Farage’s Brexit flotilla
Mikey Smith, the Deputy Political Editor of the Sunday Mirror revealed on The Division Bell podcast that he was on Bob Geldof’s boat at “the battle of the Thames” during the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Mikey explained that: “This is the fifth election I’ve covered…but the one that comes back to me strongest wasn’t actually an election campaign, it was a referendum campaign, the Brexit referendum…I can reveal to you that I was on Bob Geldof’s boat at the battle of the Thames.”
Mikey, who was standing in for The Mirror‘s Political Editor John Stevens on Tuesday’s episode, explained: “For anyone who is not as weird as us and doesn’t know what the battle of the Thames was – it was about a week out from the referendum vote, the Wednesday before I think, and Nigel Farage had arranged a flotilla.”
(
Phil Harris)
He told Martyn Brown, the Deputy Political Editor of the Daily Express, how Farage had arranged: “this mini fleet of fishermen and dinghies, and some big boats, some little boats to sail up the Thames.”
Farage, the leader of Ukip in 2016, had planned a stunt “where they were going to pour a lot of fish off the boat in protest to fishing quotas from the EU.”
(
MDM)
Mikey explained he: “got a phone call the night before from a mysterious person who said ‘Geldof has a boat and he’s gonna sail up the Thames, find Nigel, and spoil his day’.”
Bob Geldof’s boat had “a massive sound system, speakers everywhere.”
Mikey referenced the “pictures of Bob Geldof flicking the V at Farage” and insisted that despite “the outcry saying he was doing it to the fisherman, he wasn’t- he was flicking them to Farage which seems perfectly reasonable to me.”
Martyn compared this Thames-based battle to Daisy Cooper’s stunt in Henley during Rishi Sunak ’s campaign trail at the start of June.
He said: “I think the closest we got to that this year was in Henley…but there was no flicking of the Vs as far as I could see.”
This episode also sees Mikey and Martyn discuss Liam Booth-Isherwood’s withdrawal from Reform and what the final few days in Parliament will look like before Thursday’s election.
New episodes are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the General Election campaign, with a special edition on the morning after polling day.
