Joshua Kerry, 28, has been charged with one count of preparing terrorist acts in connection with alleged activity between 31 May 2024 and 8 July 2026, Counter Terrorism Policing said.
Kerry, of Byrley Road, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, is also accused of murdering Reform UK spokeswoman and former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe, 78. A court previously heard that Widdecombe died on 8 July after being hit over the head with a hammer 21 times at her home in Haytor on Dartmoor, Devon.
Kerry is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, said the charge followed a “hugely intensive and complex investigation” involving detectives, analysts and forensic experts across the Counter Terrorism Policing network.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the new charge would be “extremely concerning” and expressed her “profound sympathies” to Nigel Farage and his family. She said the case raised “serious questions about the security of those in public life”.
In August, Counter Terrorism Policing reopened a year-long investigation into an alleged firebomb attack at Mr Farage’s home in south London. The Metropolitan Police and Counter Terrorism Policing London had previously investigated the incident as an “attempted burglary” and made no arrests before closing the case pending new lines of inquiry.
After the investigation was reopened, Counter Terrorism Policing London said it had identified a line of inquiry that “may have been relevant” but had not been identified and pursued at the time.
Mr Farage told the Daily Telegraph in April that a lit incendiary device had been pushed through his letterbox early the previous year in what he described as an “outright arson attempt”. He said he was away from home and found that the device had “luckily” burned itself out in the porch.
Frank Ferguson, chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said prosecutors had decided to prosecute Kerry for engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts after reviewing the evidence. He said prosecutors would continue working with police as the investigation progressed.
