Not even a ban on milkshakes at a local McDonald’s could save Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage from being pelted with some of that sweet creamy swirl of icy goodness at a campaign rally — a trendy new thing for violent political demonstrators in the country, apparently.
According to the BBC, Farage had just given a short speech about the coming European elections in New Castle when a man doused him with a Five Guys banana and salted caramel milkshake.
“A man was dragged away by a police community support officer and later seen in handcuffs,” reports the outlet. “Paul Crowther, 32, from Throckley, Newcastle, said it was a £5.25 Five Guys banana and salted caramel milkshake.”
The assailant characterized his violent and destructive behavior as a form of “protest” and saw Farage’s speech as his “only chance,” arguing that the Brexit leader’s alleged racism is far worse than wasted milkshakes.
“I didn’t know he [Mr Farage] was in town, I thought this is my only chance,” Crowther said as he stood in handcuffs. “It’s a right of protest against people like him. The bile and the racism he spouts out in this country is far more damaging than a bit of milkshake to his front.”
Crowther added that he did not regret his actions, though he does partially regret wasting the milkshake, which he admitted to enjoying.
“I was quite looking forward to it, but I think it went on a better purpose,” he said.
Video showed Farage chastising his security staff for completely botching their jobs. Fortunately, Crowther chose a milkshake as his weapon of choice rather than an actual weapon.
“Complete failure… I could have spotted that a mile off,” Farage said as staff whisked him away. “How did you not stop that?”
A member of his team could be heard saying “sorry.”
Nigel Farage later tweeted that the milkshake attack represents one more example of extremism among EU remainers that make campaigning impossible.
“Sadly some remainers have become radicalised, to the extent that normal campaigning is becoming impossible,” Farage said. “For a civilised democracy to work you need the losers’ consent, politicians not accepting the referendum result have led us to this.”
The milkshake attack on Farage comes shortly after police ordered McDonald’s in Scotland to stop selling the sugary drink item over the weekend due to the Brexit leader campaigning nearby.
“Police ordered a McDonald’s in Scotland to stop selling milkshakes over fears people would dunk them over Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, staff said, after a flurry of incidents left prominent far-right activists doused in the creamy liquid,” CNN International reported. “Farage, the leader of the Brexit Party, was holding an event in Edinburgh on Friday ahead of next week’s European elections.”
With a McDonald’s just a “few hundred meters” away, police feared that it would become the base-camp for violent demonstrators to stock up on a milkshake arsenal. This bizarre movement of pelting right-wingers with milkshakes went viral earlier this month when a video showed Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson) get dunked by a McDonald’s milkshake at a campaign event.
“Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, had the same drink thrown over him just days later at another event,” CNN reported. “Another protester tried to do the same to UKIP candidate Carl Benjamin, who is being investigated by police over comments speculating about whether he should rape a female MP, but the liquid narrowly missed his head.”