"Small boat migrant convicted for death threats against Nigel Farage"

Man Convicted for Threat Against Nigel Farage in TikTok Video

A man who arrived in the UK via a small boat has been found guilty of threatening to kill Nigel Farage in a video posted on TikTok.

Fayaz Khan, 26, an Afghan national, was convicted by a majority verdict of 10 jurors to two after nearly 12 hours of deliberation at Southwark court. The threat against the Reform UK leader was made last October in a video that Farage described in court as “pretty chilling.”

Jurors heard that Khan had a significant online following on TikTok, where his videos garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

Prosecutor Peter Ratliff told the court that Khan had been living in Stockholm, Sweden, since 2019 and that, last autumn, his content focused on his attempts to reach the UK by small boat.

On 12 October, Farage posted a YouTube video titled “The Journey of an Illegal Migrant,” which referenced Khan and expressed concerns about “young males of fighting age entering the country about whom we know very little.”

Two days later, Khan allegedly responded with a video in which he appeared to say: “Englishman Nigel, don’t talk shit about me. You not know me. I come to England because I want to marry with your sister. You not know me.”

He continued: “Don’t talk about me more. Delete the video. I’m coming to England. I’m going to pop, pop, pop.”

Ratliff stated that while saying this, Khan made gun gestures with his hands, headbutted the camera, and pointed to an AK-47 tattoo on his face, suggesting he was “not joking.”

Farage told the court that the video left him genuinely worried, stating, “Given his proximity to guns and love of guns, I was concerned. He says he’s coming to England and he’s going to shoot me.”

Jurors were shown a screenshot of a later TikTok post by Khan with the caption, “I mean what I say,” alongside a GB News report about the alleged threat.

Additional social media videos were presented in court in which Khan made similar "pop, pop, pop" noises and hand gestures.

Khan was arrested on 31 October after livestreaming his crossing of the Channel from France. In a police interview, he claimed he never intended to harm Farage, saying, “This is my character—this is how I act in my videos. In every video I make those sounds.”

Khan did not testify in court.

Ratliff argued that the alleged threat was “not some off-the-cuff comment” but a “sinister and menacing” act, describing Khan as “a dangerous man with an interest in firearms.”

Defense lawyer Charles Royle countered that Khan was behaving in an “idiosyncratic, moronic, comedic, eye-catching, attention-seeking way” rather than issuing a true threat.