Oy polloi!
SMASHING TIME: Fiery deputy PM John Prescott gave as good as he got when he was egged by a protester while on a visit to Rhyl in north Wales in the 2001 general election. The egg hit him in the face after he stepped off a campaign bus and Prescott immediately punched the offender. The no-nonsense Labour MP later said the incident was “frightening and regrettable.” Formerly nicknamed “Two Jags” he was subsequently dubbed “Two Jabs”. BLAIRING OUT: During the same campaign PM Tony Blair was cornered on a visit to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. The Labour premier was confronted by angry Sharron Storer who launched an emotional outburst over the NHS treatment of her cancer-suffering partner.
MILKING IT: In
May 2019 Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage was “milkshaked” by a member of the public on a walkabout
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IN NORMAL times politicians are used to hitting the campaign trail to sound off from their soapboxes, glad-hand the public and kiss the odd baby.
But sometimes their interactions with the public go spectacularly wrong, as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer discovered on a visit to Bath earlier in the week ahead of the local elections.
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In scenes reminsicent of Eastenders’ Peggy Mitchell, Sir Keir was told to “get out of my pub” by angry, anti-lockdown landlord Rod Humphris, pictured left.
Here, JAMES MOORE looks back at some other very public bust-ups. in Newcastle. Remainer Paul Crowther, 32, who later admitted assault in court and lost his job over the incident, said he had lobbed the banana and salted caramel drink in a “moment of madness”.
GOO ARE YA? Labour’s business secretary Peter Mandelson was slimed in 2009 by environmental activist Leila Deen, below, who flung green custard in his face. The 29-year-old, protesting about the expansion of Heathrow Airport, was later cautioned over the incident in London.
TAKING THE MIC: During the 2010 general election campaign PM Gordon Brown was challenged during a visit to Rochdale by 65-year-old Gillian Duffy who quizzed him over immigration policy. Afterwards, in his car, the Labour leader was caught calling her a “bigoted woman” by a mic he was still wearing. Brown was forced to apologise and the affair was “Bigot-gate”.
BORIS BAWLED OUT: In September 2019, on a walkabout in Morley, West Yorks, PM Boris Johnson was heckled on camera by a local voter who said: “Please leave my town!” In the same month he was confronted at a market in Doncaster by a female voter who told him he had a “cheek” to visit and berated the Tory leader over Brexit.
WHAT A TWEET: Labour’s Emily Thornberry sparked outrage on a visit to Rochester during a 2014 by-election in the Kent constituency with a tweeted image of a house draped in St George’s flags and a white van outside saying: “Image from Rochester”. Resident Dan Ware branded her a “snob” and the red-faced MP resigned from the party’s front bench.
BROCHURE BASHING: In 2013 UKIP’S MEP Godfrey Bloom hit Channel 4 reporter Michael Crick over the head with his party’s conference brochure, after accusing him of being “racist” for asking why there were no black faces on its cover. soon dubbed