Nigel Farage speech interrupted by banner showing smirking Vladimir Putin

Published

5 months ago

June 30, 2024

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A speech by Nigel Farage was disrupted when a banner showing a smirking Vladimir Putin descended from the ceiling at an election rally.

Campaign group Led By Donkeys carried out the stunt as the Reform UK leader spoke on stage at the Columbine Centre in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex.

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Footage posted on social media showed the banner slowly descending from the ceiling showing the Russian president with his thumb up and the caption “I [heart emoji] Nigel”.

It comes after Mr Farage faced a backlash for claiming earlier this month the West and NATO “provoked” Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Upon seeing the banner, Mr Farage – the Reform UK candidate for Clacton – said: “Who put that up there? Someone at the Columbine Centre needs to get the sack.”

People in the audience can be heard chanting “rip it down”, before two men are seen trying to remove the banner before walking off stage when they appear unable to budge it.

In the video, Led By Donkeys noted Mr Farage’s comments from 2014, where he told GQ magazine Mr Putin was the world leader he most admired. He added at the time he does not approve of him politically or “as a human being”.

After Mr Farage’s remarks on Russia in a recent TV interview, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Reform UK leader’s comments were “completely wrong” and they “only play into Putin’s hands”.

The stunt came as Reform UK withdrew support from three of its parliamentary candidates over alleged comments made by them, with the racism row engulfing the party continuing to grow.

Channel 4 News aired footage filmed undercover that showed Andrew Parker, an activist canvassing for Mr Farage, using the racial slur “P***” to describe the prime minister, describing Islam as a “disgusting cult”, and saying the army should “just shoot” migrants crossing the Channel.

Reform UK was condemned by party leaders across the political spectrum, and Mr Sunak reacted furiously to the comments, saying Mr Farage had “some questions to answer”.

The candidates for the Clacton constituency are:

Matthew Bensilum, Liberal Democrats

Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, Labour

Craig Jamieson, Climate Party

Tony Mack, Independent

Natasha Osben, Green Party

Tasos Papanastasiou, Heritage Party

Nigel Farage, Reform UK

Andrew Pemberton, UKIP – NO to Illegal Immigration

Giles Francis Watling, Conservative Party

Politics

NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain

Published

1 hour ago

November 15, 2024

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NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain

The state Department of Environmental Conservation botched the permitting process, but it still gets a do-over.

Politics

UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September – slower than expected

Published

1 hour ago

November 15, 2024

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UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September - slower than expected

The UK economy grew by 0.1% between July and September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, despite the small positive GDP growth recorded in the third quarter, the economy shrank by 0.1% in September, dragging down overall growth for the three month period.

The growth was also slower than what had been expected by experts and a drop from the 0.5% growth between April and June, the ONS said.

Economists polled by Reuters and the Bank of England had forecast an expansion of 0.2%, slowing from the rapid growth seen over the first half of 2024 when the economy was rebounding from last year’s shallow recession.

And the metric that Labour has said it is most focused on – the GDP per capita, or the economic output divided by the number of people in the country – also fell by 0.1%.

Reacting to the figures, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Am I satisfied with the numbers published today? Of course not. I want growth to be stronger, to come sooner, and also to be felt by families right across the country.”

“It’s why in my Mansion House speech last night, I announced some of the biggest reforms of our pension system in a generation to unlock long term patient capital, up to £80bn to help invest in small businesses and scale up businesses and in the infrastructure needs,” Ms Reeves later told Sky News in an interview.

“We’re four months into this government. There’s a lot more to do to turn around the growth performance of the last decade or so.”

New economy data tests chancellor’s growth plan

The sluggish services sector – which makes up the bulk of the British economy – was a particular drag on growth over the past three months. It expanded by 0.1%, cancelling out the 0.8% growth in the construction sector.

The UK’s GDP for the most recent quarter is lower than the 0.7% growth in the US and 0.4% in the Eurozone.

The figures have pushed the UK towards the bottom of the G7 growth table for the third quarter of the year.

It was expected to meet the same 0.2% growth figures reported in Germany and Japan – but fell below that after a slow September.

The pound remained stable following the news, hovering around $1.267. The FTSE 100, meanwhile, opened the day down by 0.4%.

The Bank of England last week predicted that Ms Reeves’s first budget as chancellor will increase inflation by up to half a percentage point over the next two years, contributing to a slower decline in interest rates than previously thought.

Announcing a widely anticipated 0.25 percentage point cut in the base rate to 4.75%, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) forecast that inflation will return “sustainably” to its target of 2% in the first half of 2027, a year later than at its last meeting.

The Bank’s quarterly report found Ms Reeves’s £70bn package of tax and borrowing measures will place upward pressure on prices, as well as delivering a three-quarter point increase to GDP next year.