A female Liberal Democrat MP has accused Nigel Farage of shoving her aside at the state opening of parliament after which one of her male colleagues intervened.
Caroline Voaden gave her account of the incident in May this year after Farage revealed on Wednesday that there had been a “physical altercation” in parliament which meant he had decided to avoid the budget.
Voaden told the Guardian: “He was trying to get out of the chamber and instead of just asking if he could go past, he said ‘let me past’. I turned round and said ‘no, you can wait your turn like everyone else’. He grabbed me by the arm or the shoulder, pushed me to one side and tried to push past me. One of my colleagues tried to stop him because he thought I was going to fall down the stairs. And then we all shuffled down.
“Quite deliberately, he grabbed me by the arm from behind and pushed me to one side so that I fell into a colleague or the wall on the other side. I was really taken aback and really angry because I think you just don’t behave like that in any workplace, let alone the chamber of the House of Commons. It was rude. It was nasty.”
Voaden said she had complained to the sergeant at arms who she believed had written to Farage asking him to apologise. She also raised it with the speaker. “Nothing ever came of it,” she said.
A Reform UK source said it was “not true at all, it was the Lib Dem MPs being aggressive towards Nigel. This is typical Lib Dem dishonesty in an attempt to stay relevant”.
The male Lib Dem MP who intervened is understood to be Max Wilkinson, with sources saying he put a hand on Farage’s shoulder, “fairly gently” grabbed him and said he could not do that to another MP.
Reform sources also suggested a video from the Commons shows her account was wrong, but the Lib Dems say the incident took place before the footage starts.
The row erupted after the Reform leader said on Wednesday that he had skipped John Healey’s speech in the House of Commons due to his seat reservation having been moved, so he decided to give it a “wide berth” in order to “avoid conflict” in the chamber.
He claimed that he had been involved in a “physical altercation” with another MP on the day of the state opening of parliament in May.
It later emerged his reservation had been removed by Commons staff as it did not have the proper date stamp.
Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, had earlier revealed to Sky News that her party’s MPs were involved in the May incident mentioned by Farage.
Cooper told Sky News: “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.
“I didn’t see it, I didn’t witness what happened, but that was several months ago.
“And let’s be really clear: it’s Reform UK that had a problem at their conference with bundling female journalists and members out of their hall. So, we’ll take no lessons from them on this.”
Afterwards, Voaden posted on social media, saying: “We both know that’s not true Nigel don’t we?
“I’m still waiting for the apology you were required to write to me … Though I won’t hold my breath.”
When asked for a response to the accusations, Robert Jenrick, Reform’s shadow chancellor, 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. And I’m not interested in even responding, dignifying the nonsense that Daisy Cooper is talking about there.”
