Police are investigating two alleged assaults during Boris Johnson's Brexit rally in Winchester

That's not the start of a joke, but the violent scene which broke out at a Hampshire Brexit rally yesterday. 

Referendum activists clashed in Winchester as the former Mayor of London brought his referendum roadshow to town. 

Police are investigating claims a Leave campaigner punched a gorilla-suited man in the face and shoved a parish councillor off the Buttercross monument.

Cllr John Romero has reported to police that he was pushed from the 6ft plinth.

Hampshire police believe the same suspect may have punched the costumed ape, who heckled and waved inflatable bananas during Mr Johnson's high street speech.

The leading Tory visited on a busy market day and was mobbed by people as he made his way from the Winchester Royal Hotel.

Snapping selfies and shaking hands with supporters, he was ferried through a 300-strong crowd to the top of the historic Buttercross.

But the event turned sour when Otterbourne parish councillor John Romero fell six feet from the monument and landed on his back.

The 64-year-old says he put a poster in front of Mr Johnson's face, prompting a Leave campaigner to push him with his knee and send him backwards off the steps. 

He said the man “smiled” at him, offered no apology and was seen leaving the rally.

Cllr Romero said: “I could have lost my life there. What has happened today has given me questions whether this is something I really want to do if I am not going to be safe.

“It is not an acceptable form of politics – it is a gangsterism.”

Cllr John Romero on the ground after falling from the Buttercross (photo by Stuart Martin for the Daily Echo)

Hampshire Police confirmed they were reviewing photographic evidence, with a spokesman adding: "Both incidents are possibly thought to be connected, in relation to the same suspect."

Further allegations of assault have appeared on social media with people claiming they were also attacked during the rally.

Mr Johnson was followed up the street by the gorilla man as he left the event. The protester's sign said "I eat five in a bunch Boris," an apparent reference to Mr Johnson's erroneous claim that EU rules banned supermarkets from selling more than two bananas in a bunch.

A Vote Leave source said: "A number of campaigners tried to push on to the steps including a man dressed as a gorilla repeatedly trying to push into the crowd.

"We're shocked that anyone may have fallen off it. We'll wait for a police investigation. We do not condone any violence at events. There was a concerted effort to try and disrupt this rally from the Remain campaign."
The debate continued after the cameras left, with supporters on both sides staying behind to chat.

Jake Mace, a 17-year-old student at Peter Symonds College, said: "This is our chance to get our view heard and what we want for our future. We're the next generation and we stand with the EU."

He added: "This is a mainly leadership position for Boris. I think he's doing this because he wants to be the next Conservative leader and not because he genuinely wants to leave the EU."

Brexit supporter Lucy Hamilton, 66, said: "Some of the Remain people were apologising for the behaviour of some of the Remainians. They should have been listening to what Boris was saying."

Speaking to the Daily Echo, Mr Johnson said quitting the EU would bring a "boom" to Southampton port and controlled immigration would benefit Hampshire industry.

He said: "Ports like Portsmouth and Southampton would see a boom as we would be able to take control of our economic destiny and set our trading ambitions globally.

"One of the deficiencies of the current EU system is that all our trade negotiations are conducted by the European Commission: a group of bureaucrats, only 3.6 per cent of whom are from this country.

"People should be optimistic about their country, believe in Britain, don't believe the scaremongering. This is the moment, by taking back control, where we show we can stand on our own two feet and do better than ever before."

Mr Johnson also invoked Hampshire's ancient history as he claimed King Alfred, the medieval king who ruled England from Winchester, would have backed Brexit.

He said: "I think King Alfred would have wanted to see robust defence of British institutions to make sure that we were not subject to the rule of international powers or foreign bodies. I think that is what he stood for. 
"He promoted the English Navy to achieve that and I think he'd be a wholehearted Brexiteer."

Earlier in the day Mr Johnson said unmet promises on immigration had "deeply damaged faith in our democratic system".

Citing new figures showing a record net influx of 333,000 people in the year to December 2015, Mr Johnson said people had watched "Prime Minister after Prime Minister make promises on immigration that cannot be met because of the EU".

Mr Johnson and his aides went for lunch at the upmarket Wykeham Arms pub before returning to Westminster.