A man has been jailed after hitting Conservative Party chairwoman Baroness Warsi in the face – with an egg.
Gavin Reid, 23, from Luton was sentence to six weeks in prison by Westminster Magistrates’ Court after being found guilty of intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress under the Public Order Act.
Baroness Warsi, a shadow minister at the time, had been accompanying Tory candidate Nigel Huddleston through the Bury Park area of Luton in November 2009.
The prosecution was told how Baroness Warsi was targeted by a mob who hurled abuse at her. She was then targeted with two or three eggs – one of them hitting her in the face.
She was left with egg yolk running down her face and had to take cover in a nearby sari shop.
The Baroness, who did not give evidence in person, told the mob: ‘I am not fazed, I am a criminal solicitor from Yorkshire’.
Magistrate Elizabeth Roscoe said: “Throwing eggs goes beyond legitimate political protest and is quite clearly disorderly behaviour and it is also threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour.”
Reid, who was arrested 15 days after the incident, had denied the charges.
Baroness Warsi, who was named Britain’s most powerful Muslim woman last year, is the UK’s first female Muslim Cabinet member.