Ukip declares it's 'ready for war' over second Brexit referendum, Twitter responds with memes

The UK Independence Party (Ukip) has been ridiculed on social media after indicating the party is "ready for war" should the government fail to leave the European Union (EU).

Currently led by embattled politician Henry Bolton, who said Monday (15 January) he had split with his girlfriend over racist comments she made about soon-to-be royal Meghan Markle, the party's verified Twitter account was hit with a slew of memes in response to the comment.

In the widely critiqued tweet, published Saturday (13 January), it wrote: "UKIP does not want another referendum, but we MUST be ready for war if the government fails to deliver."

The statement followed the news that former Ukip leader Nigel Farage had voiced his support for a second referendum on whether Brexit should go ahead in order silence its opponents.

In an interview on The Wright Stuff, he said: "If we had a second referendum we'd kill it off for a generation as the percentage of the vote to leave next time will be very much bigger than it was last time. And we may just finish the whole thing off and [Tony] Blair can disappear off to total obscurity."

And speaking to Sunday Politics over the weekend (14 January), Bolton said his predecessor's words had been misconstrued. He also mentioned the – hopefully metaphorical – idea of war.

He said: "There is a need to mobilise the entire Leave campaign of all the different elements to unite and actually ensure that we do move this whole Brexit thing forward. Because otherwise it's not going to be delivered in any meaningful form. So that's really what [Farage] was talking about.

"What he's saying there is 'okay, let's go into war on this' – that was my reaction."

Online, commenters were quick to hit back at the poorly worded tweet which, let's be honest, kind of made it sound like the war would happen unless a second Brexit vote was introduced.

Twitter user Mark Moss wrote: "Out of interest... where exactly will you fight this war? On the streets? Where you can barely assemble a few hundred people at one time? Or in the Commons where you assemble much much less?"

"The official UKIP twitter account is actually threatening war on the government, I think the admin forgot to switch from the Britain First account before sending this," user Ben Price quipped.

Luckily for the British population, one apparent Ukip member called Bradley Roper was on hand to clear up any concerns. "Of course we are not talking about military combat," he tweeted Saturday. "We are talking about a war or fight metaphorically for British democracy."

Most, however, did what the internet demands after an odd comment appears: posted memes.

The Ukip press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from IBTimes UK.