Nigel Farage has been left “horrified” after counter-terrorism police reopened an investigation into an alleged firebomb attack at his home — after admitting officers failed to pursue a potentially crucial line of inquiry.
The Reform UK leader was told earlier this year that a “lit incendiary device” had been pushed through his letterbox in what officers initially treated as a botched burglary.
The investigation was swiftly closed without an arrest.
But Scotland Yard has now reopened the case after Counter Terrorism Policing London acknowledged that officers had failed to identify and pursue a line of inquiry that “may have been relevant”.
The extraordinary admission has prompted a mandatory conduct referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which is examining the actions of an individual officer accused of failing to pursue the lead.
For a political leader who says he received around 1,500 threats in just five months, including almost 600 death threats, the revelation raises deeply uncomfortable questions about how seriously threats against Reform figures are being treated.
A Reform source described the failure as a “very serious policing error”, adding that the referral demonstrated that counter-terror officers recognised they had “messed up”.
The source told The Sun on Sunday: “There has been a very serious policing error which is why [CTP] have referred themselves to IOPC, which is unprecedented.”
The controversy comes amid heightened security concerns surrounding the party following the killing of Ann Widdecombe at her Devon home last month.
There is no suggestion that the alleged attack on Mr Farage and Ms Widdecombe’s death are connected.
But police have admitted investigating whether the suspect in the murder case may have been targeting other Reform politicians.
Joshua Kerr, 28, has been charged with murder after allegedly travelling more than 250 miles from South Yorkshire to Ms Widdecombe’s Devon home. He is also being held on suspicion of terrorism offences.
He has not entered a plea.
Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, who heads Counter Terrorism Policing, has confirmed investigators were examining whether other Reform figures could have been targeted.
Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, has accused authorities of repeatedly failing to take threats against the party seriously.
He said: “Only recently have the authorities woken up to the abuse and intimidation I and other Reform MPs have had, despite plenty of real examples that we have provided.
“For too long, the threats we have faced have not been taken seriously.
“The fact that the police have referred themselves to the IOPC speaks for itself. They recognise that they’ve messed up.”
Mr Tice has previously revealed that he was forced to activate his own panic button following a threatening incident, after which police made an arrest.
Mr Farage himself was subjected to two assaults during the 2024 general election campaign and says the volume of threats against him has since escalated dramatically.
The latest revelation has therefore exposed more than an embarrassing policing mistake.
It raises a far more serious question: how many warnings have to be missed before threats against politicians are treated as threats to democracy itself?
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