A man has been arrested on suspicion of publishing a social media message threatening to shoot Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader. The Metropolitan police detained a man in his 20s on Tuesday after the post on X was reported to them by parliamentary authorities in May.
Arrest and investigation details
A Met spokesperson said: “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 inquiries.”
Context of threats against politicians
The post on X, made during the May elections, read: “I am going to shoot you in the head if you win.” Farage has previously claimed that police have not taken death threats against MPs seriously enough and has called for increased security spending for politicians. Ann Widdecombe, a former MP and Reform UK spokesperson, was killed last week, with police investigating possible leftwing political motives. In the past, several individuals have been convicted for sending threats to kill or rape MPs including Stella Creasy, Jess Asato, Jess Phillips, and Ed Miliband. Last year, an Afghan man who entered the UK on a small boat was found guilty of threatening to kill Farage in a TikTok video.
Farage and Reform UK response
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.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, said there was an “overwhelming sense of fear amongst the Reform MPs” after Widdecombe’s killing. He said: “In terms of the current situation with state protection for Reform MPs, there has been some movement in the very near past. I’m not going to comment on that but suffice to say, I think, particularly in light of new information, I’m pleased to say the threats are being taken seriously.”
