Nigel Farage flees as he is surrounded by protesters and branded ‘scrounger’
Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has been greeted by hecklers who branded him a ‘scrounger’, while signs up along a road on a visit to the Shetland Isles branded him ‘frog-mouthed’
Nigel Farage has been confronted by angry protesters on a visit to the Shetland Islands – including by one man who branded him a ‘scrounger’.
The Reform UK leader was spotted campaigning in Lerwick today after addressing a party rally in Aberdeen last night.
A video shared on social media shows Farage stood outside public toilets as he tells a demonstrator: “Well, maybe we need some more people in politics to make money and then everybody be rich. How about that?” But one responded: “More billionaires in politics? That’s your ideas, more successful billionaires, scroungers like yourself?”
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Farage then walked away, batting the air with his hand. Speaking to local outlet Shetland News, he went on to call the hecklers an example of “modern day Marxism” and utterly “deluded”, adding: “There’s something quite sinister about that.”
A sign put up along one of Shetland’s main roads meanwhile appeared to brand the Clacton MP a “frog-faced w****r”.
Reform UK are competing in the Scottish parliament election on May 7, and are currently at third behind Labour and the SNP on recent opinion polls. They are being represented in the Shetland constituency vote by Vic Currie.
Scottish Labour candidate John Erskine commented on the Reform UK leader’s visit: “Farage has turned up to support his candidate in Shetland today, and I’m sure the people of Shetland – like the people of Scotland – will reject him at the polls on May the 7th.
“He’s a divisive figure, and he’ll do nothing but help the SNP stay in power. They’ve got nothing to offer Scotland, they’re Tories in disguise, and what Shetland needs is change, not more Tory lies and divisive politics from the floor.”
In an appearance at a party rally in Aberdeen last night, Farage insisted his party could take “outright power” at Holyrood in 2031.
“I do think Scottish politics deserves a jolt, and I do believe that (Reform leader in Scotland) Malcolm Offord is prepared to give the courage and the leadership to take us through May 7, to establish us in Holyrood and to put us in a position where we win outright power, outright control, next time around”, he said. “That is the plan, that is the timetable that I’ve set out.”
