LONDON — A man was arrested Tuesday after an alleged threat to Nigel Farage on social media that he would be shot in the head.
In a statement, the Met Police said they arrested a man in his 20s “on suspicion of sending threatening communications to a Member of Parliament.” That man was released on bail Wednesday.
A report in the Telegraph newspaper alleges the Reform UK leader was told: “I am going to shoot you in the head if you win.”
Police said the arrest relates to a social media post reported to them on May 8.
“After receiving the report, detectives submitted an application to a social media platform to gain access to the user’s contact information. After the relevant information was returned to detectives the man was arrested, with support from local Met officers, at a residential address in south London,” the Met Police statement added.
The arrest comes as counterterrorism police investigate the death of Ann Widdecombe — a former Conservative minister who became a Reform UK spokesperson — at her home in Devon last week.
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.”