Nigel Farage has been targeted with another prank on the paid video service Cameo, this time paying tribute to the child sexual abuse offender Ian Watkins.
Cameo allows fans to pay celebrities to make personalised video messages, with the Reform party leader offering his services from £78.45.
In a 27-second video posted online by John Smith, who requested the clip, Farage called the former Lostprophets singer, who was killed in prison last year, “a good man, a really good guy” who “loved his children”.
He pretended to know Watkins, whose victims included a baby boy, and said he was “very much in contact with me”.
It follows a similar prank in 2021 when Farage unwittingly issued a message of support to the IRA, ending a birthday message with: “Up the Ra!”
When asked by Metro about the latest clip, Farage said: “Thank him for the money. There are lots of Ian Watkins. Tell him to send more. I did alter his request.”
Farage’s Cameo page claims to offer fans “a unique opportunity to receive personalised messages from the former UK politician and Brexit leader”. It adds: “His videos provide an entertaining and lighthearted way for fans to connect with him and his signature straight-talking, anti-establishment style.”
Smith told the publication he had not expected Farage to film the request, which cost him £98. “Getting the video was simplicity itself, I just asked him to do a video on behalf of a late friend called Ian Watkins and his family,” he said.
“I am concerned that he could not see through my frankly paper-thin deception and his willingness to do anything for money without even a rudimentary check. If he would do this for a small amount of money, what would he do for paymasters with deeper pockets?
“I hope to show the world that Farage is a man who will do and say anything for whoever is paying him. I suspect he has no actual ideology and will follow the path to power that offers the least resistance.
“If I could speak directly to him I would ask why he did not do even a rudimentary check? Will he blindly accept what he is told by the Kremlin, the White House or anyone with £70 going spare for a Cameo?”
Two men have been charged after Watkins bled to death when he was stabbed in the neck in October at HMP Wakefield. The former frontman was serving a 29-year custodial sentence for the attempted rape of a child, sexual assaults and possession of extreme child abuse material. The case was described by its lead detective as the “most shocking and harrowing child abuse evidence I’ve ever seen”.
Smith said he did not think the prank was making light of Watkins’ crimes. “No, I am worried that Farage’s support of Grok and its ability to generate obscene images of women and children, his giggling at PMQs yesterday makes light of these crimes.
“My favourite part was the fact he knowingly lied saying ‘Ian’ was someone he knew well. If he is prepared to lie for relatively paltry sums, what is he prepared to do for larger amounts?”
Farage previously faced prank callers on the LBC radio show he hosted between 2017 and 2020, including in 2019 when a caller told him on air that he was formerly a remainer until “something monumental” had changed his mind. “What was that monumental thing, Mark?” Farage asked. “I was kicked in the head by a horse,” the caller replied.