A Breitbart London analysis has revealed hundreds of historical and contemporary messages sent via social media platforms urging violence against UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage.
Over the course of just a few hours, Breitbart London uncovered hundreds of tweets and Facebook updates dating back as far as 2010, with some as recent as last Thursday afternoon after Member of Parliament Jo Cox was murdered.
The revelations go some way to shattering the narrative that “hateful” or “aggressive” rhetoric emanates from only one side of UK politics. Most of the messages listed below are from younger people, and Breitbart found that most were either Liberal Democrat, Scottish National Party, or Labour Party supporters. Most of them also expressed pro-European Union sentiment and were overwhelmingly supportive of the ‘Remain’ campaign at the European Union referendum.
Basic level searches under the search terms “shoot Nigel Farage”, “stab Nigel Farage” or “kill Nigel Farage” reveal hundreds of messages, some of those in fact with further messages of support for the notions in the replies.
For example, on January 17th 2013, Liberal Democrat member Craig Swanney tweeted, “Can someone just shoot Nigel Farage”. As of June 20th, Mr. Swanney has a “TEAM #INtogether” image on his Twitter profile.
Other examples range from those playing “Snog, Marry, Kill” and opting to kill Mr. Farage, to some deeply disturbing comments such as “If I was a hitman, I’d kill Farage for free” and “I want to stab Nigel Farage in the neck”.
Some social media users urge others to attack Mr. Farage, while some suggest they are willing to do it themselves.
What follows is a non-exhaustive list of some of the most pertinent examples of how Mr. Farage is threatened for exercising his freedom of speech as a political party leader that attracted four million voters at the last general election.
Mr. Farage and his party have had to pay for private security for the Member of the European Parliament for years, and he is routinely attacked on the campaign trail, including recently in Northampton, and last year when his family were chased out of their local pub while enjoying a Sunday meal together.
In March last year Breitbart London revealed how comedian Noel Fielding urged his fans to “stab Nigel Farage”.
THE LIST: