The Reform UK leader said the murder of Sir David Amess, and threats against him, means he is restricted from holding in-person constituency meetings.
Nigel Farage has said he is unable to hold in-person constituency surgeries in Clacton due to the security threats against him, suggesting he risks being murdered.
Mr Farage has been criticised by left-wing opponents, who have accused him of failing to behave like a normal MP with regards to holding advice meetings with constituents.
However in an LBC phone-in show today, the Reform UK leader revealed he has been advised by the House of Commons security services not to hold such surgeries, or risk being murdered like Sir David Amess.
A critic of Mr Farage’s from Manchester called into the show to ask how many surgeries he has conducted since being elected in July.
Mr Farage said that while he does now have an office in the Essex town, he added: “Am I allowing the public to flow through the door with knives in the pockets? No, no I am not.”
Mr Farage says there’s too large a security risk to holding in-person surgeries (Image: Getty)
Asked by Nick Ferrari why the people of Clacton may arrive with knives, Mr Farage simply said: “They did in Southend when they murdered David Amess, and he was a far less controversial figure than me.”
He insisted he is dealing with emails and phone calls from constituents “every single day”, adding: “I have to be honest, I’ve been so overwhelmed with the thousands of emails that I’ve had that putting together an office, putting together a team and attempting to get through the backlog is one hell of a job. I am doing some zoom surgeries.”
Asked whether he will ever do in-person surgeries, Mr Farage replied: “When parliament allows me”.
He suggested that parliament is effectively blocking him from holding the usual MP advice surgeries, after guidance from the Speaker’s office and the security team.
Sir David was murdered in 2021 (Image: Getty)
He revealed they told him ‘you should do some things and not do others’.
“We’re not in a fit state to do the old-style surgeries, but you know what, if you’ve got something to say to me as a Clacton resident, Zoom is not the end of the world is it?”
Responding to allegations from the local Labour Party that he is also failing to answer emails, Mr Farage hit back that he will respond, but not “if you send me 3000 emails”.
Mr Farage also spoke about his security fears in the wake of the summer riots, slamming LBC presenter James O’Brien for labelling them the “Farage riots”.
Mr Farage said: “no wonder my security details as big as it is because of people like him.”
“When you spread hatred and you spread lies, you anger a lot of people, and then their feelings against you become potentially violent”.
Sir David Amess was murdered in 2021 by a radical Islamist, who stabbed him to death during a constituency surgery.
His murder was the second in recent years, coming five years after Jo Cox during the 2016 referendum.
