Richard Tice and Nick Ferrari were at loggerheads on LBC this morning over Nigel Farage’s no-show at the Clacton count. The Reform leader stayed away as the returning officer declared his victory, citing security concerns. According to the party, Farage faced ‘an organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result’. The man himself declared earlier this morning: ‘I’m damned if I’m going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory … and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies’. Ferrari, for his part, was not convinced that amounted to a security threat.
Essex Police contacted Farage’s office yesterday about a threat, but the force insisted it never advised him not to attend the count. Interviewing Tice, the LBC host remarked: ‘We heard Mr Farage say he would not be attending because he did not want to be demeaned and humiliated. So that’s nothing to do with his safety that’s he doesn’t want to stand next to someone dressed as a dustbin.’
The Reform deputy leader was not best pleased with this line of questioning. He blasted: ‘I trust the judgement of Nigel’s security team above everybody else. Let’s trust Nigel’s security team to keep him safe, secure and alive’. But when Ferrari pressed him again on why Farage had mentioned the prospect of being humiliated on stage, Tice could only reply: ‘I don’t know.’
Oh dear. Farage may have for very understandable security reasons refused to share a stage with a bin, but it was Tice’s explanation that ended up looking like rubbish.
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