Police have arrested a man for threatening to shoot and killย Nigel Farage.
The man, in his 20s, was arrested on Tuesday inย London after a post on X warned the Reform UK leader: โI am going to shoot you in the head if you win.โ
The suspect is understood to have described himself as a terrorist on social media.
The arrest for the threat on Mr Farageโs life came just days after former MP and Reform spokeswomanย Ann Widdecombe was killed in a โtargeted attackโ.
The post on X was made on May 8 on the day of the local elections, but the suspect was only arrested yesterday โ almost two months later and six days after Miss Widdecombe was found dead in the kitchen of her remote Dartmoor bungalow.
According to The Telegraph, his profile shows a picture of a British Asian man.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police told Mr Farage this morning a male had been arrestedย on suspicion of sending a threatening communication.
He has since been released on bail.
Mr Farage revealed yesterday that he gets 30 death threats a week. Reform UK said it has recorded 1,577 threats against him since February, including 597 death threats.
The figures include multiple threats from a number of individuals whom the party believes are โfixatedโ with the idea of killing him.
Police have arrested a man for threatening to shoot and kill Reform UK leader Nigel Farage
The arrest for the threat on Mr Farageโs life came just days after former MP and Reform spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe was killed in a โtargeted attackโ
Mr Farage told The Telegraph: โThis 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.โ
The post was reported to Scotland Yardโs parliamentary liaison and investigations team by the Parliamentโs security information and risk analysis service, according to the newspaper.
A Met Police spokesperson told the Daily Mail:ย โOn Tuesday, 14 July a man in his 20s was arrested by Met officers on suspicion of sending threatening communications to a Member of Parliament.
โThe 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 userโs contact information.
โAfter 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, heย has since been bailed pending further enquiries.โ
Reform has compiled a dossier of hundreds of threatening messages received by Mr Farage, many of them posted on X.
They include 597 death threats โ equal to an average of four a day or almost 30 a week.
One, posted on June 23, stated: โExecute the stinking traitor Nigel Farage. TODAY.โ
Another, sent two days later by a persistent individual, said: โGet the f*** out of Wales before I just kill Nigel Farageโฆ you can die at any f***ing moment.โ
A third sent on July 2 accompanied by an image of aย noose, said: โIn 1916, traitors like you would have ended your days early in the Tower of London.โ
One message, sent from a suspected neo-Nazi account, said Mr Farage would โget executedโ as a โrace traitorโ.
This morning, Reform UKโs home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf called for theย budgetย for MPsโ safety to be increased to ยฃ100m, with a bodyguard for every one of them.
Last year, Afghan migrant Fayaz Khan,ย who has a tattoo of an AK-47 on his left cheek, was jailed for five years for making a threat to kill Mr Farage.
The Reform leader claimed todayย that he was initially told byย Keir Starmerย that Miss Widdecombe died during a โburglary gone wrongโ.
He said he was also told the same by the chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police James Vaughan in the aftermath of her body being discovered last week.
On Monday it was revealed that counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation into her death at her Dartmoor bungalow, and have arrested a 28-year-old man.
Mr Farage and other Reform figures have used the killing to put the spotlight on the threat to their safety.
Speaking toย Talk TVย today, Mr Farage said:ย โI spoke to the chief constable of Devon and Cornwall police three times. I spoke to the prime minister as well and those calls took place over Friday and Saturday and they both told me itโs a burglary thatโs gone wrong.
โI said, no, it is not. A burglar does not park his car on your drive and walk into the house.ย A burglar parks in a lay-by down the road or has a getaway driver.
โAnd I went to Dartmoor on Saturday and I said, I have no doubt this is a premeditated murder. I received tons of abuseย for saying it but sadly itโs proved that Iโm right. It was obvious.โ
Later, he insisted to The Sun he was not trying to โpoint the fingerโ at the PM, saying it had been a very โcourteousโ conversation.
