Nigel Farage boycotted the Commons for the chancellor’s first budget — not over policy, he says, but because he feared a repeat of a “physical altercation” with another MP after a seat reservation was removed. Instead of sitting through the speech, the Reform UK leader held a post-budget press conference with his party’s Treasury spokesperson, Robert Jenrick, where he kept the spotlight on Ukraine aid and pushed his party’s pro-crypto tax agenda.

Why he stayed away
Farage told reporters he gave the chamber a “wide berth” after discovering a prayer card that had been saving his seat had been removed. He said that, on a previous occasion, a similar dispute had turned physical, and he preferred to avoid a confrontation. The…