Nigel Farage’s keynote speech has been disrupted by protesters after counter-terror police blocked the Reform UK leader from taking to the stage.
Four protesters who had smuggled themselves into the main hall at the NEC in Birmingham were forcibly removed after counter-terror police were accused of blocking Mr Farage’s address by more than an hour.
Mr Farage, who is embroiled in a donation row which resulted in two aides resigning this morning, updated GB News about the delay to his speech just moments before taking to the stage.
The Reform UK leader told The People’s Channel: “Counter-terror police wouldn’t let me on while they inspect the stage.”
Speaking from the stage a few minutes later, Mr Farage added: “I’m sorry we were delayed. It was a security alert. I was told, for security reasons, I couldn’t take to the stage.”
Mr Farage’s speech was delayed until 5.20pm after campaigners unveiled a banner depicting Mr Farage as Mr Monopoly.
The banner, which was in reference to a gift handed to Mr Farage by the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne, added: “Collect £5million, burn the planet.”
A sniffer dog was brought into the main hall to carry out a security search before Mr Farage’s speech.
After one interruption, Mr Farage joked: “These are the benefits of a university education, folks.”
He later asked another protester: “Tell us, love, is it sociology, is it? Yeah, I bet it is.”
The Reform UK leader echoed his previous response to protesters by leading members in chanting: “Boring, boring, boring.”
In a fourth exchange, Mr Farage said: “That poor young girl, she looked like she was going to do herself an injury, didn’t she?”