Peterborough MP candidate hits out after ‘milkshake thrown over Bridge Street stall’ by 'angry' member of the public

Milkshake said to have been thrown at the SDP stall

The ‘attack’ on the SDP stall in Bridge Street was said to have been carried out at around 11.40am this morning (Saturday).

SDP by-election candidate Patrick O’Flynn - one of 15 trying to win the Peterborough seat - said a woman threw a milkshake over election leaflets and two Union Flags before taking a bottle of water from the stall and throwing the contents of it at SDP member Mary Herdman.

Ms Herdman was not hit but a young man passing by was drenched by some of the water.

Mr O’Flynn, a pro-Brexit candidate, said: “This young woman seemed affronted by our ‘Fighting For Brexit’ sign, so I can only surmise she was a Remain supporter. She deliberately tipped the contents of her milkshake over our stall and then took a bottle of water belonging to Mary.

“We have not as yet involved the police as nobody was physically injured, though in my book this clearly was a minor act of criminal damage.”

Around half an hour later the SDP team on the stall was also subject to verbal abuse by a passing jogger, Mr O’Flynn claimed.

He added: “We have been doing our stalls for several weeks now and during that time we have interacted with hundreds of people. While most people stopping for a chat have been Leave supporters who agree with our message, we have all had perfectly polite conversations with many Remain supporters too.

“But there seemed to be a change of atmosphere on Saturday, possibly because the European elections are now so close.

“I just hope that in our parliamentary by-election in Peterborough everyone can respect the democratic process and the right of people to take a different point of view.

“There should be no room for this kind of intolerance.”

Mr O’Flynn said he will keep running the stall on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays until the eve of polling day.

The by-election is being held on Thursday, June 6 after Fiona Onasanya became the first MP to be removed by her constituents under a Recall Petition. The petition was signed by 19,261 of her constituents (27.64 per cent), passing the 10 per cent threshold needed to trigger a by-election.

All of the candidates can be viewed here.