Putin the boot in! Pranksters interrupt Nigel Farage speech by lowering a huge banner mocking his views on Ukraine behind him as he speaks

Nigel Farage was bamboozled by a surprise banner of Russian President Vladimir Putin descending from the ceiling at a rally in Walton, Essex this evening.

Led By Donkeys, a political campaign group, claimed responsibility for the act, broadcasting the full unveiling on their Twitter/X page.

Video showed the banner emblazoned with a picture of Putin and the words 'I [heart] Putin' slowly unfolding behind the Reform UK party leader as addressed his audience at the Columbine Centre, some 9 miles from Clacton-on-Sea.

While some cackled at first, others joined calls to 'rip it down' as two men struggled to pull the poster from the ceiling.

In a pithy explanation, Led By Donkeys said on Twitter/X: 'Nigel Farage says Putin is the world leader he 'admires the most' and blames the West for Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine.'

Farage has received bipartisan criticism for his controversial comments on Russia, with Boris Johnson late last week saying he was 'parroting Putin's lies' with 'morally repugnant' claims.

In a speech shared on Twitter/X on June 24, Farage discussed comments made with the BBC's Panorama in which he said that the expansion of the EU and NATO had 'provoked' Putin into invading Ukraine. 

'George Robertson, the former Secretary General of Nato, said a few months ago that the EU's accession agreement to Ukraine was a mistake that was used by Putin,' he claimed.

Lord Robertson, who headed Nato from 1999 to 2003, accused Mr Farage of talking 'total nonsense'.

Russia occupied and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. 

In an article for the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Farage also wrote: 'His [Putin's] invasion of Ukraine was immoral, outrageous and indefensible. 

'As a champion of national sovereignty, I believe that Putin was entirely wrong to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine. Nobody can fairly accuse me of being an appeaser. I have never sought to justify Putin's invasion in any way and I'm not now. 

'But that doesn't change the fact that I saw it coming a decade ago, warned that it was coming and am one of the few political figures who has been consistently right and honest about Russia's Ukraine war. If you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don't be surprised if he responds.'

Sharing the article on X, Mr Johnson wrote: 'This is nauseating ahistorical drivel and more Kremlin propaganda. Nobody provoked Putin. Nobody 'poked the bear with a stick'.

'The people of Ukraine voted overwhelmingly in 1991 to be a sovereign and independent country. They were perfectly entitled to seek both Nato and EU membership.'

Russian state TV – rigidly controlled by the dictator – jumped on Farage's comments and boasted that he was 'complimentary' to Russia and had revealed 'who really provoked the conflict'. 

Asked if the Kremlin considered the Clacton-on-Sea candidate 'an ally', Maria Zakharova suggested it did, saying: 'How [else do] you see the person who tells people that two plus two is four or reminds you of the exact time?'

Nigel Farage was due to speak at the Columbine Centre in Walton-on-the-Naze at 5pm on Saturday.

The Reform Leader is standing to run in nearby Clacton-upon-Sea, currently a Tory-held constituency.

Reform currently finds itself embroiled in a row over a Channel 4 investigation in which an undercover reporter filmed a Reform volunteer making racist comments about Rishi Sunak and offensive remarks about shooting migrants.

Reform has distanced itself from the volunteer, noting he claims to be an actor. They have also made an official complaint against Channel 4 for 'electoral interference'.

Channel 4 has denied that Andrew Parker, who was filmed using a racial slur to describe Rishi Sunak, was paid by or known to the broadcaster before the expose on Farage's General Election campaign in the constituency of Clacton.