Don McNaughton was doused in the pink milkshake today in Aldershot, Hampshire
A military veteran who spent 22 years in the Army was covered in a milkshake today while campaigning for the Brexit Party outside a polling station.
Don McNaughton, who is in his 80s and served in the Parachute Regiment from 1960 until 1982, was doused in the pink liquid this morning in Aldershot, Hampshire, while campaigning on European Parliament election day.
He said: ‘Some yob, mid-20s, he came across from (a) street, walked over to me, gave me the finger, went up to the Co-Op, got a milkshake, came down here and threw it on me. Politics today.’
Mr McNaughton is thought to be a teller who had been sitting on a chair outside the polling station and recording the number of people who have voted.
It is the latest in a spate of incidents involving people attacking public figures with milkshakes, with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage and English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson among those targeted in recent days.
Passer-by Lucy Blackman said: ‘I arrived just after, he seemed shocked. He just told me to watch out for the milkshake on the floor so my children didn’t slip.’
Dominic Farrell, a former Army major, added that Mr McNaughton – who was born in Victoria, British Columbia – was a ‘very popular man with the local community’.
The military veteran who spent 22 years in the Army was covered in the milkshake today
The widower has published two novels about his time in the military – They Stood in the Door was published in 1983, followed by They Stayed a Soldier in 1986.
Nadia Martin, a local, said on Facebook: ‘I have just been to see him and offered him a lift home to get changed but he didn’t want to. He doesn’t seem upset by it.
‘He said the guy cycled by him, saw his badge and put his fingers up at him, then went to the coop to get a milkshake, came back and threw it over him.
‘He isn’t getting the police involved but there will be cameras in the coop and there’s a camera across from the polling station.’
Meanwhile Stands offering free milkshakes have been set up outside polling stations in Kent – part of the South East England constituency where Mr Farage is standing.
Drinks brand Plenish, which makes plant-based dairy-free refreshments, came up with the idea after the Brexit Party leader was hit by a milkshake earlier this week.
Yesterday, Mr Farage denied claims he hid on his Brexit Party bus to avoid being doused in a milkshake again.
He was campaigning in Kent when two men and a woman were spotted waiting for him at his next stop in Rochester.
One of Mr Farage’s supporters said they were carrying milkshakes and he was quickly alerted.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage was struck by a milkshake while in Newcastle on Monday
His bus driver Michael Botton said the Brexit Party leader had to quickly change his plans to avoid an attack – though later his spokesman insisted that Mr Farage had not hidden inside the bus.
The group were accosted by Brexit Party organisers who prevented them from getting too close to Mr Farage.
They continued to shout anti-Farage slogans. Police challenged them about the milkshakes – which they claimed were for their own consumption.
Mr Farage was covered in a £5.25 banana and salted caramel milkshake while campaigning in Newcastle on Monday.
Paul Crowther, 32, has been charged with common assault and criminal damage after the incident, Northumbria Police said.
Earlier in the day he had visited Dartford and Gravesend, where he left the bus and joined a throng of around 30 fans.
He told followers he was relaxed about Monday’s attack, and that he was ‘less worried about the milkshake saga’.
At a Brexit Party rally in West London on Monday, party chairman Richard Tice said the milkshake incident in Newcastle was ‘a grave attack on Nigel and his family’.
The spate of milkshake incidents follows previous attempts to attack politicians, including when former deputy prime minister John Prescott punched a protester who threw an egg at him outside a theatre in Rhyl, North Wales, in 2001.
Other politicians who have fallen victim over the past decade to egg attacks include Ed Miliband, George Galloway, Peter Mandelson and Nick Griffin.
A Hampshire Police spokesman said: ‘We received a report at 10.06am from a third party about an assault on a man in his 80s at North Lane, Aldershot. We are investigating the incident and are trying to make contact with the victim.’
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