Anti-Ukip Protestors have hounded Nigel Farage, his wife and his two young daughters from a pub near their home in Kent whilst the family was enjoying a Sunday lunch.
The two girls, aged just ten and fifteen, fled in terror and were missing for some time this afternoon before returning home. Mr Farage has labelled the crowd “scum”.
The crowd of between 60 and 100 activists first turned up at the George and Dragon where Mr Farage has previously been spotted having a pint. When they heard that he was actually at the nearby Queen’s Head in Downe, Kent, they relocated, mobbing the family as they were enjoying a quiet Sunday lunch.
They chased the family from the pub, jumping on the bonnet of Mr Farage’s car as he drove away. The self styled “cabaret of diversity” was said by organiser Dan Glass to comprise of migrants, HIV activists, gay people, disabled people and breastfeeding mums, all of whom claimed to have been “targetted by Ukip.”
Glass told the Independent “Ukip are a con. They pretend to be anti-establishment but this couldn’t be further from the truth. By wrongfully shifting the blame for the economic crisis on to immigrants they have let the bankers off the hook. We will not succumb to their prejudice. We will create the world we want to live in. A world beyond Ukip.”
But Mr Farage reacted angrily, saying “I hope these ‘demonstrators’ are proud of themselves. My children were so scared by their behaviour that they ran away to hide. At the time of writing this a relative has gone to look for them, and they are not yet at home. These people are scum.”
Mr Glass said “We didn’t see any kids.”
Left wingers have reacted with delight. Mike Kear, a freelance photographer who was in attendance said it seemed “very calm”, describing the event as day of celebration”.
“It was very good-natured – there was certainly nothing very intimidating about it,” he said.
Mike Kear, a freelance photographer attending the protest, said it seemed “very calm” inside the pub throughout and described the demonstration as “a day of celebration”.
“It was very good-natured – there was certainly nothing very intimidating about it,” he said.
Occupy London was also present, tweeting a number of images from the pub depicting “Roma solidarity” and a “beyond Ukip celebration”
But others recognised a more sinister element to the anti-democratic protest.
Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan tweeted “A gang chases away two girls in pursuit of “tolerance”? I’d have used a stronger word.”
Douglas Carswell, Ukip’s first elected MP questioned whether the recent slew of anti-Ukip programmes on television over the last few weeks had created a false impression that mobbing the Ukip leader was ok.
And Mark Littlewood, director of the Institute for Economic Affairs and a former Liberal Democrat press officer, said “hard to disagree with Farage’s description of the “protestors” as scum”
Nigel later thanked those who were offering support and reassured Ukip voters that he would not be silenced.
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