Farage under barrage as he is trapped in pub by angry mob
HE came to Edinburgh to launch his party’s biggest ever Scottish campaign – and ended up being rescued from a baying mob by a police riot van.
An angry crowd of Left-wing and pro-independence protesters stormed a bar where UKIP leader Nigel Farage was meeting journalists and hurled abuse at the politician.
Mr Farage was told to ‘go home’ to England and branded ‘racist Nazi scum’ as demonstrators chanted anti-British slogans.
The press conference was halted and the MEP fought his way out onto the Royal Mile.
As the crowds grew and attempts to flag down a cab for Mr Farage failed, police closed the road. He was then bundled back into the pub by officers, who locked the doors and barricaded him inside. A police riot van eventually arrived to rescue him.
More than 50 protesters had gathered, bearing a giant Vote Yes for Scotland banner. Offensive chants included ‘You can stick your Union Jack up your a***’ and ‘Go back to England, you’re not welcome here’.
Members of an extreme Left-wing group called Radical Independence, which has been involved in the official Yes Scotland campaign, helped promote the protest.
Amid the ugly scenes, Mr Farage said: ‘We have never had a reception like this anywhere in Britain before. It is clearly anti-British and antiEnglish. They hate the Union Jack, so maybe that’s what it’s about.’
Afterwards, he said: ‘Normally I would love to be locked in a pub, but it was pretty unpleasant. It’s not something I’ve experienced myself anywhere else in the United Kingdom. If this is the face of Scottish Nationalism, it’s a pretty ugly picture.
‘This was dressed up as an antiracism protest, but it was nothing of the sort – it was an anti-English thing. If the police hadn’t been there, it could have turned very nasty.’
The UKIP leader was in Scotland to promote his party following a string of victories in English council elections. The party is fighting next months’ Holyrood by- election in Aberdeen Donside and is aiming to win a Scottish seat in next year’s European election.
Mr Farage had asked to meet political journalists in a pub near the Scottish parliament and selected the Canons’ Gait on the Royal Mile. Often
pictured with a pint in his hand, the colourful politician chatted to reporters and drank a beer before he carried out television interviews.
But protesters arrived in the bar shortly after 5pm. Within 15 minutes, Mr Farage had been forced to leave tie pub, escorted by about ten police officers.
A taxi was flagged down, but the driver refused to let Mr Farage into his cab. A second taxi was hailed by officers and Mr Farage got inside.
But a female activist in a wheelchair blocked the cab from moving and Mr Farage was forced to get out and go back to the pub – leaving his briefcase in the taxi.
As protesters swarmed around the building, a police riot van arrived at 5.40pm and took Mr Farage to a city centre hotel.
The wheelchair user who had blocked his escape by cab gave her name only as Rachel, 24, from Edinburgh.
She said: ‘It’s obvious that people in Scotland blatantly don’t want him and his policies here.
‘We rolled the wheelchair in front of the taxi to stop him making an escape. He is a racist b******. His views on immigration are just wrong.’
Before the trouble started, Mr Farage had told reporters his hopes of making a breakthrough in Scotland had been improved by next year’s independence referendum.
He said: ‘The SNP is selling an entirely false prospectus to the people of Scotland. They talk about independence within the European Union – don’t make me laugh.
‘If the SNP’s position was that they wanted to be out of the United Kingdom and out of the European Union, at least intellectually you could respect that position.’
A spokesman for Yes Scotland said: ‘ We had no knowledge of, nor any involvement in, this incident. Yes Scotland seeks to run a positive campaign and we would condemn any form of intimidation.’
UKIP spokesman Gawain Towler insisted Mr Farage would continue with his engagements north of the Border.
UKIP has never made a breakthrough in Scotland, polling only 0.91 per cent of the regional vote in the 2011 Holyrood election.