British police have arrested a man who threatened to shoot Reform leader Nigel Farage in the head. He posted this on 8 May, but was not arrested until 14 July. This was after the murder of Ann Widdecbombe.

The suspect – who has described himself as a terrorist on social media – warned Farage: “I will shoot you in the head if you win.”

This is the first time an instruction from the parliamentary authorities to the police to investigate a death threat against Farage has resulted in an arrest.

This comes after Reform UK MPs demanded better security measures for politicians in the wake of the murder of Ann Widdecombe.
Farage has previously complained that the police have done nothing to intervene against others who have made similar threats online.

The arrest of the man in London on Tuesday suggests that the police may now be taking such threats more seriously as a result of the murder of Widdecombe, which Devon and Cornwall Police have described as a targeted attack.

The threatening post on X was published on 8 May, the day after the local and mayoral elections, but the man was not arrested until 14 July, six days after Widdecombe, a Reform spokesperson, was killed in her home on Dartmoor.

The man in question later responded to another of Farage’s tweets, in which he celebrated Reform’s success in the local elections, with further threats against his life.

The man had therefore made several threats against Farage, but the police did not react until a prominent Reform politician was killed.

Farage says that the police told him they believed the man who killed Ann Widdecombe was a burglar who had been discovered.

They have since retracted that claim.

The question now is whether Reform politicians can trust the police to protect them before something happens to them.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/15/police-arrest-man-over-threat-to-shoot-nigel-farage/