CanterburyGazette
Monday 6 April 2015
Election Candidate Left With Egg on Face. BIP leader dismisses ambushers as “loony lefties and yobbos”
Nicholas Formio addresses locals in Ramsgate shortly before the first egg lands
by Fay Curry for Canterbury Gazette Online
South Thanet electoral candidate Nicholas Formio was pelted with eggs and flour during a walkabout in Ramsgate this morning.
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British Independence Party leader Formio, who has an 11% lead in the race for the East Kent seat, was chatting to shoppers and local business leaders outside the 99p store in Union Street when the foodstuffs began raining down.
The events were witnessed by local mother of five Tracy Whitlow. “He was talking about the local jobs situation in this area”, said Whitlow, 24. “Then the first egg flew in front of his face and smashed against the window of Robert Dyas.”
The story was picked up by Labour councillor Mike Burgess. “Formio was banging on about immigration just as the first egg spattered its contents on his neck and collar. As he tried to identify the thrower, several more eggs scored direct hits about his face and body. He tried to carry on regardless, but just then, what must have been several kilograms of flour descended from a window somewhere above.”
“He was all sticky from the eggs,” Whitlow continued. “The flour adhered well to him.”
The identity of Formio’s assailants remains a mystery. Several young men and women – “teenagers or in their early twenties,” according to reports – were seen running away. Police are questioning occupants of the flats above the stretch of Union Street where the attack took place.
A local fish and chip shop owner came to the rescue when he ushered Formio away from the scene and onto his premises, locking the door behind him. “I’ve got a shower out the back because it can be pretty sweaty work in here on a busy night.”
Formio spoke to journalists after he had cleaned up. “I won’t let the actions of a few idiots obscure the point I was making,” he vowed. “Thousands of young people, young British people, in this constituency cannot get a job while that 99p shop floor is teeming with foreign workers on zero-hours contracts.”
The chip shop owner, Greek-born Antonis Stavropoulos, said Formio thanked him then went on his way. “It’s a shame really,” Stavropoulos reflected, “when he come in here he looked good enough to fry.”
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