Nigel Farage branded 'bully' by MP claiming he grabbed and pushed her

A Lib Dem MP has branded Nigel Farage a "bully" - claiming he grabbed her by the arm, pushed her to the side and barged past her in the Commons. The under-fire Reform UK chief is accused of manhandling Caroline Voaden at the King's Speech procession earlier this year - a claim his party disputes. The spat only became public this week when Mr Farage told journalists he skipped Wednesday's Budget because of an "altercation" in the chamber.

Ms Voaden told Times Radio that he was upset after getting stuck behind MPs when he should have been at the front because he was a party leader. She said: "He got stuck behind a load of MPs and was clearly quite annoyed that he was not at the front of the procession. "And he tried to push past us, and I told him to wait his turn like everybody else, because actually there was nowhere he could have gone, because there were so many people in front of us.

"And he didn't like that. He grabbed me by the arm, pushed me hard to one side, and barged past.” She said one of her colleagues thought she was going to fall down the stairs. Ms Voaden said no one from Reform had gone to the rehearsal - so didn't know what he was supposed to be doing. She said: “He's quite rude. I think he's a bully. He very rarely shows up in the House of Commons . He's not interested in it. He's not interested in sitting in the fourth row amongst a bunch of other MPs actually doing the job.

You know, if he's not in the limelight and he's not on the front row and he's not in front of the cameras, then he's just not interested.” On Thursday a clip came to light showing Ms Voaden and Mr Farage walking down the steps in the Commons as they headed for the door. The Lib Dem MP said the incident had occured before the clip started, out of sight of the camera. Lib Dem frontbencher Max Wilkinson posted on X: "I was a witness to the incident between Farage and Caroline Voaden (his pathetic excuse for not attending the budget yesterday).

For the avoidance of doubt and for the information of everyone making all sorts of silly statements: the incident happened BEFORE this footage." And in a further post he wrote: "This is only now being discussed in public because Farage got caught out not attending the budget. He and Jenrick blamed this incident, in which Farage has upset a female MP by using physical force. We Lib Dems didn’t proactively raise this matter." Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper told Sky News on Friday: "My understanding - I didn't see it, I wasn't there - but my understanding is that he physically shoved one of our female MPs out of the way, and that one of our male MPs then challenged him on that."

The flashpoint came to light on Wednesday, when Mr Farage was asked why he had missed the Budget. He told a press conference: “At the State Opening of Parliament, I didn't want to, but I got involved in a physical altercation with an MP in the chamber. “I didn't make a fuss about it, I didn't complain, but I could see, given that my prayer card had been removed, I was heading towards another physical altercation, and just sometimes it's better to avoid conflict, that's one reason.

“Second reason is actually, I sat going through the budget with our senior economists in the office, so I actually had the time to go through it line by line, knowing I had to come and face all of you (journalists) at 3pm, and I don't spend my whole life studying this in a way that (Reform Treasury spokesman Robert) Jenrick does." The Reform UK leader had said his parliamentary prayer card, which MPs use to reserve a seat in the chamber, had been taken away, a claim ridiculed by opposition MPs.

A House of Commons spokesperson later said Mr Farage’s prayer card was removed because it did not have a valid time stamp. Reform officials denied the allegations, and insisted it was the Lib Dem MP who was acting aggressively. Mr Jenrick said: "You know what? I am sick to death of these pathetic Westminster debates. "The thing about Reform politicians is, yeah, we love Parliament, the institution of Parliament. I go there every day. I speak in Parliament.

I represent my constituents. "But I'm much more interested about, actually, the issues, trying to change this country, getting out and about outside of the bubble. I'm not interested in even responding, dignifying the nonsense that Daisy Cooper is talking about there."