Greater Manchester Police said they had arrested a man after what has been called alleged “death threats” against a political candidate standing in this week’s by-election for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party.
A 23-year-old man was arrested by Manchester Police on Monday evening, the force said, shortly after they received a formal complaint. Alleged threats, including an apparent death threat, had been made against election candidate Simon Danczuk, who is due to face the voters on Thursday to select Rochdale’s next member of parliament.
Danczuk, a former high-profile Labour Party politician who was MP for the Rochdale seat from 2010 to 2017 and who left the party over a sexting scandal is now standing for the Reform UK Party, better known as the Brexit Party. Tapping into the political zeitgeist and big issues now dominating the UK media landscape, Danczuk has attempted to differentiate himself from other candidates standing by promising to govern for “Rochdale, no Gaza”.
As reported, Reform leaders including Nigel Farage revealed the apparent death threat against Danczuk, which came in a social media video where a male voice is heard over visuals of a Danczuk campaigning leaflet. The voice calls the politician a “white devil”, a “son of a bitch”, before threatening to “put one in his head”, which was interpreted by some as a death threat.
In another case, a message received by the party allegedly said: “I am going to assault you when I see you and I care not of the consequences”.
Honorary party president Nigel Farage said: “Never in my life have I seen anything like this, this is the greatest threat to our democracy ever”, and party leader Richard Tice called the comments “absolutely outrageous and unacceptable”.
The Manchester Evening News reports a man was arrested over an alleged online threat opn Monday evening. They said the suspect is 23-years-old and remains in custody for questioning, and that local police had stepped up patrols ahead of the election. A spokesman told the paper: “We understand incidents like this can be concerning but the victim and the public should be reassured that we’ve made an arrest. In anticipation of the by-election, we had already put increased patrols in place.”
Violence against politicians is a major concern in the UK presently, which two Members of Parliament having been murdered in the past decade and threats of further violence against members being cited as the reason behind a convention-busting decision to change vote procedure in Parliament last week.
House Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said he acted unconventionally because he feared a terrorist attack on Parliament or its members. He said: “I never ever want to go through a situation where I pick up a phone to find a friend of whatever side has been murdered by a terrorist. I also don’t want another attack on this house — I was in the chair on that day. I have seen, I have witnessed: I won’t share the details, but the details of the things that have been brought to me are absolutely frightening on all members of this house on all sides. I have a duty of care”.