Nigel Farage erupted in fury after campaign group Led By Donkeys disrupted a Reform UK with a prank mocking his comments about Vladimir Putin.
The party’s leader was addressing a crowd of supporters at the Columbine Centre in Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex when a screen descended from the ceiling bearing a picture of the Russian president with his thumb up and the message “I ❤️ Nigel”.
Farage was initially unaware of the image as it slowly appeared from above the stage.
Video footage posted online by Led By Donkeys later shows him looking up at the picture and saying: “Who put that up there?”
He later adds: “Someone at the Columbine Centre needs to get the sack, aren’t we agreed? We will hound them to make sure that is the case.”
The crowd can be heard chanting “rip it down”, but two Reform supporters are then shown struggling to remove it.
The prank came after Farage provoked a backlash for claiming the West had “provoked” Putin into invading Ukraine in 2022.
He has also previously spoken of his admiration for Putin as a world leader.