A man has been arrested for threatening to shoot Nigel Farage in a social media post.
The Telegraph reports that a suspect wrote a message on X to the Reform UK leader in May, which read: “I am going to shoot you in the head if you win.”
The post was made on 8 May, the day after the local elections and the man was arrested in London on Tuesday. He has been bailed pending further enquiries.
Regarding the incident, Mr Farage told The Telegraph: “This is the first time the police have ever proactively acted on a social media post, and I hope they are looking at the other three or four hundred similar posts from this year alone.
“This has been going on for years – not just words but videos of people firing guns and so on, and in the past we have put multiple reports in to the police, always to be told that these social media posts don’t meet the threshold, which is extraordinary.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told The Independent: “On Tuesday, 14 July a man in his 20s was arrested by Met officers on suspicion of sending threatening communications to a member of parliament.
“The arrest relates to a social media post from earlier this year, which was reported to police on Friday, 8 May. After receiving the report, detectives submitted an application to a social media platform to gain access to the user’s contact information.
“After the relevant information was returned to detectives, the man was arrested, with support from local Met officers, at a residential address in south London. After being held in police custody overnight, he has since been bailed pending further enquiries.”
It comes as Reform UK has called for MPs to have their security improved following the killing of Ann Widdecombe.
Counterterrorism police have said Widdecombe was killed in a “targeted attack”, and her death has sparked a wider conversation about the safety of MPs.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer said “we must do more to defend our democracy”, adding that it was “chilling” that three sitting or former MPs had been murdered during his 11 years in parliament.
The prime minister added: “I have tasked officials across government to identify the best mechanisms for taking this work forward, so it can move as quickly as possible.
“And I hope the whole House can unite behind that in the months ahead.”
Incoming prime minister Andy Burnham has also said a “serious review” is needed into MPs’ security.
Reform on Wednesday called for more money for additional security for MPs to be raised from around £4m to up to £100m to provide full security for all who want it.
In a press conference on Tuesday, the party’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf appeared to accuse politicians and the media of creating a narrative tantamount to “incitement” against Reform.
He said the “climate in which [Widdecombe] was killed” had been one of “a relentless narrative from politicians and the media that Reform UK is a threat, a threat to be urgently stopped”.
He added: “A narrative so relentless it constitutes incitement. And why are we targeted like this? Because we say things that are unfashionable among many in Westminster, but are popular in the country at large.”
