Nigel Farage is led away after being hit by a milkshake

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On Monday the Brexit Party leader was left covered in milkshake as he campaigned on the streets of Newcastle. Paul Crowther, 32, has been charged with common assault and criminal damage. After the attack a post from the account of Ruth Townsley@vintagecyclist said: “Bravo to Paul Crowther, good on you mate.

“Great that milkshakes have become a thing when it comes to the racists in our midst. “I’d prefer acid but milkshakes will do for now I guess.” The account was subsequently deleted - but not before it was spotted by the Brexit Party, which retweeted it from its Brexit Party South East account. Brexit Party South East subsequently said: “Please ensure you let @HappyCItyUK know what you think about the head of measurement and policy who is encouraging ACID ATTACKS on politicians.”

The post sent from Ms Townsley's Twitter account

Happy City’s website features a biography of an employee named Ruth Townsley written in 2015, in which she describes herself as “programme manager of Happy City’s 12 month Innovate UK-funded project to develop an interactive tool which will enable policy makers to see the health benefits of improvements in wellbeing.” Express.co.uk contacted the charity and was told Ruth Townsley had been suspended and an investigation had been launched. In a statement the charity said: “Happy City is aware that one of their employees has previously posted tweets from their personal account including one about the Nigel Farage protest. “We do not in any way agree with the contents of these tweets which contradicted all of our strongly held values. “We believe all politicians have a right to have their voices heard, and condemn violence of any sort at any level of society.

“We are fully investigating this incident internally in accordance with our procedures.” They later added: "Ruth Townsley no longer works for Happy City." Bristol-based Happy City’s mission statement says it aims to “change the compass from pointing to consumption and growth toward wellbeing for people, place and planet” features. Speaking after Monday's incident, Mr Farage said he did not know what was being thrown at him, and called for a message to be sent that "people can't behave like this". He added: “I am concerned about the sheer level of hatred coming from those who think they're better than me. "I just think we've reached a point where normal campaigning is becoming very difficult, and that in a democratic society cannot be a good thing."

Ruth Townsley has been suspended by Happy City UK, the charity confirmed