Police arrest man for threatening to shoot Nigel Farage after former MP Ann Widdecombe was killed in ‘targeted attack’

Police have arrested a man for threatening to shoot and kill Nigel Farage.

The man was arrested on Tuesday in London after a post on X warned the Reform UK leader: ‘I am going to shoot you in the head if you win.’ 

The suspect is understood to have described himself as a terrorist on social media. 

The arrest for the threat on Mr Farage’s life came just days after former MP and Reform spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe was killed in a ‘targeted attack’. 

He revealed yesterday that he gets 30 death threats a week. Reform UK said it has recorded 1,577 threats against Mr Farage since February, including 597 death threats.

The figures include multiple threats from a number of individuals whom the party believes are ‘fixated’ with the idea of killing him. 

The post on X was made on May 8 on the day of the local elections, but the suspect was only arrested yesterday – 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 arrested on suspicion of sending a threatening communication.

He has since been released on bail.  

The arrest for the threat on Mr Farage’s life came just days after former MP and Reform spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe was killed in a ‘targeted attack’

Mr 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.’

The post was reported to Scotland Yard’s parliamentary liaison and investigations team by the Parliament’s security information and risk analysis service, according to the newspaper. 

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 – equal to an average of four a day or almost 30 a week.

One, posted on June 23, stated: ‘Execute the stinking traitor Nigel Farage. TODAY.’

Another, sent two days later by a persistent individual, said: ‘Get the f*** out of Wales before I just kill Nigel Farage… you can die at any f***ing moment.’

A third sent on July 2 accompanied by an image of a noose, said: ‘In 1916, traitors like you would have ended your days early in the Tower of London.’

One message, sent from a suspected neo-Nazi account, said Mr Farage would ‘get executed’ as a ‘race traitor’.

This morning, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf called for the budget for MPs’ safety to be increased to £100m, with a bodyguard for every one of them.

Last year, Afghan migrant Fayaz Khan, 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. 

Last year, Afghan migrant Fayaz Khan (pictured), 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 

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The Reform leader claimed today that he was initially told by Keir Starmer that Miss Widdecombe died during a ‘burglary gone wrong’. 

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 to Talk TV today, Mr Farage said: ‘I 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 it’s a burglary that’s gone wrong.

‘I said, no, it is not. A burglar does not park his car on your drive and walk into the house.  A burglar parks in a lay-by down the road or has a getaway driver. 

‘And I went to Dartmoor on Saturday and I said, I have no doubt this is a premeditated murder. I received tons of abuse for saying it but sadly it’s proved that I’m right. It was obvious.’

Later, he insisted to The Sun he was not trying to ‘point the finger’ at the PM, saying it had been a very ‘courteous’ conversation. 

The Daily Mail has contacted the Met Police for comment.