Mystery girl behind Nigel Farage milkshake saga sparks online theories

By Charlie Sawyer

Published Jun 5, 2024 at 12:18 PM

Reading time: 2 minutes

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Image courtesy of Mark Thomas from Shutterstock

I don’t think it’s an overestimation to say that Nigel Farage is one of the most embarrassing political figures the UK has ever seen. Head moron of the Reform UK party, Farage often graces my X (formerly Twitter) feed—the most recent instance being the iconic moment a blonde queen (now being referred to on X as the “modern day Princess Diana”) chucked a McDonald’s milkshake into the politician’s face after he left an election campaign event in Clacton.

But what first appears to be a pretty straightforward case of a member of the public going rogue has countless people online circulating rumours that the entire ordeal was a politically motivated staged scene.

Before we get into this pretty bizarre conspiracy theory, however, let’s first take a moment to appreciate some of the best reactions to milkshake-gate X has to offer:

First, netizens analysed the milkshake footage, pointing out that the entire thing felt a bit ‘off’ and that it was a pretty big coincidence that such a newsworthy event happened right at the beginning of Farage’s campaign bid.

Then, the plot thickened. After doing some digging, people came across a photo of Farage standing very closely with a woman who looks suspiciously like the so-called assailant.

However, this all came crashing down pretty quickly when it was revealed that the pal of Farage was actually a woman named Emily Hewertson, whose X bio “patriotism, politics and Prosecco” doesn’t really give milkshake bandit vibes.

Hewertson soon responded to the theories herself, confirming that she was not the one who threw the drink. In a statement, she wrote: “I hope this is a lesson in how quickly an unsubstantiated lie about an individual can spread on social media. People should not be allowed to get away with politically-motivated, malicious smear campaigns like this. I thought journalists, in particular, would know better.”

This statement was preceded with the following post:

Oh, and she also posted this on 4 June 2024: “Parliament will be a better place with Nigel Farage in it.”

This saga aside, it’s also important to note that the individual in question, a 25-year-old woman now identified as Victoria Thomas-Bowen who has reportedly been arrested on suspicion of assault, is now also being subject to extreme sexist and misogynistic hate on X—specifically, in reference to her alleged OnlyFans account.

A number of people have begun directing vile abuse towards Thomas-Bowen on the basis that she must be a dumb and promiscuous woman because of her alleged sex work. Personally, I don’t see why her profession or side hustle has anything whatsoever to do with the event in question. That being said when you’re trying to defend a man as horrific as Farage, I suppose you always had to go for the low blow—immaturity and baseless hate are all you’ve got on your side.

Just a reminder Reform, this is your candidate: