Nigel Farage has been branded a “racist” by one of several hecklers in his first media conference since his election to parliament.
The Reform UK leader, whose party won the seat of Clacton and three other seats, confronted seven hecklers, one of whom he accused of being “absolutely steaming”.
The protester was marched out of the central London event after he accused the Reform leader of being racist.
In return, Mr Farage said: “Are you down wind of a couple already?
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“He’s absolutely steaming isn’t he? That’s alright there’s still plenty of beer left in the pub mate.”
Mr Farage then proceeded to chant back at the protester several times that he was “boring”, before adding: “Well this is good preparation for the House of Commons I suppose.”
The party leader was then interrupted again by other hecklers who told him he was “racist” and that he did not “represent the working class”.
They have chanted “you’re a racist” and “you don’t represent the working class”.
Once the interruptions had been stopped Mr Farage went on to hail his party’s performance in the election, in which four of his candidates were elected as MPs.
The party leader, who failed in his seven previous attempts to enter parliament, will represent the Essex seat of Clacton after winning a majority of nearly 10,000.
As well as Clacton, the party also picked up Ashfield with its candidate Lee Anderson, the former deputy Tory party chair who defected to Reform earlier this year.
It also defeated the Conservatives in Great Yarmouth and Boston and Skegness.
Mr Farage said he had two objectives – to win millions of votes and establish a “bridgehead” in parliament to rival the Tories.
He claimed there was “absolutely no enthusiasm for Starmer’s Labour” and that his party would serve as the “opposition around the country”.
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And he said he was launching “criminal legal action” against Vetting.Com as he vowed to “professionalise” Reform UK.
Asked about the racism row engulfing the party, Mr Farage blamed the firm it contracted to vet candidates.
“I made it clear that Ukip would be a non-racist, non-sectarian party, and in the end it was,” he said.
“I will jolly well make sure, starting today, that we do not want people with desperately unpleasant views. We will not tolerate people with these views. They will be gone.
“And we’ll have the funding after this, we’ll have the support coming in to be able to absolutely professionalise the party. This will never happen again.”
