Protester throws bucket of slurry over Kilroy-Silk

The Euro-MP Robert Kilroy-Silk had a bucket of farm slurry thrown over him last night as he turned up for a radio show.

The Euro-MP Robert Kilroy-Silk had a bucket of farm slurry thrown over him last night as he turned up for a radio show.

The former chat-show host was attacked as he arrived at Manchester High School for Girls to take part in BBC Radio 4's Any Questions? Some of the slurry also hit the Cabinet Office minister Ruth Kelly, who was walking into the building with Mr Kilroy-Silk, 62.

At the start of the programme, the host Jonathan Dimbleby told listeners what had happened to the panel member, who had to clean himself up and change his clothes.

The MEP, who was elected as a member of the UK Independence Party but has since resigned the party's whip, said his assailant had shouted: "In the name of Islam." In January this year, Mr Kilroy-Silk stepped down as presenter of Kilroy after being taken off the air by BBC bosses following his description of Arabs in his Sunday Express column as "suicide bombers, limb-amputators, women repressors".

A BBC spokesman said last night: "About 20 minutes before the programme went to air, Mr Kilroy-Silk was coming into the building with Ruth Kelly and as they were entering someone came along with a bucket of farmyard slurry, shouted something at him, threw it over him and ran off."

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said officers took statements at the scene and were currently investigating the incident but no arrests had been made.