Nigel Farage has broken his silence after a man who threw items towards him during the General Election campaign was handed a suspended sentence.
Josh Greally, from Chesterfield, was filmed throwing objects while the Reform leader was travelling on an open-top bus in Barnsley on 11 June.
Speaking in a video posted to social media, the GB News star hit out at the decision to hand Greally a six-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months.
“You can see the picture of me ducking and me shouting to everybody else, ‘get down’”, he said.
Nigel Farage broke his silence on the attacker's sentencing
X / PA
“It was a very dangerous, provocative, violent thing for this guy to do. Luckily, some builders who are working on the site stopped him and apprehended him.
“He was arrested today. He’s been given a suspended prison sentence. He will not serve any custodial time at all. But you see in Keir Starmer’s Britain, if he put something in tempera on Facebook after a couple of glasses of wine, he would have gone to prison.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
“That’s the mess we’re in. 147,000 people guilty of carrying knives in the year to March. Some have sexual offences, and they’ve been given community orders, meaning they don’t get criminal sentences.
“Our prisons are full. We’re letting people out who are violent offenders to put Facebook offenders in.
“Some of their speech isn’t very nice. I accept that. Crime is out of control. We’re even allowing people to go shoplifting up to £200 without being prosecuted.
“You simply could not make it up. I’ve got a feeling that all of you out there are increasingly concerned. Going out at evening, walking around our streets, catching public transport, we have to build more prisons.
Josh Greally arrives Barnsley Magistrates' Court, where he was given a suspended prison sentence after throwing items at Nigel Farage during the General Election campaignPA“We have to make those that threaten our society pay some kind of price.”
Barnsley Magistrates’ Court heard Greally plead guilty to a public order offence over the incident which took place as Nigel made a speech.
The court heard he launched an object at Nigel before reaching into a bin and taking out another object to throw at the Reform leader.
Neither of the objects hit the GB News star, who was elected MP for Clacton.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage makes a speech on the Reform UK campaign bus in Barnsley, South YorkshirePAThe court heard Greally then ran away despite members of the public attempting to apprehend him, but was chased and found by police a short time later.
He had travelled to the event as part of a group and played a “prominent role”, a judge said.
At an earlier hearing, Greally admitted using threatening, abusive or insulting words and behaviour with intent to cause fear or provoke unlawful violence. The maximum sentence for the offence is six months in custody.
