Keir Starmer has launched a ferocious attack on Nigel Farage shortly after a poll revealed the Reform UK leader is British voters’ last choice to be Prime Minister
Keir Starmer has ramped up his war of words with Nigel Farage, humiliating the Reform UK leader by naming him ‘Liz Truss 2.0’. The Prime Minister’s ferocious attack came just days after a poll revealed ‘political fraud’ Nigel Farage is voters’ last choice to be PM.
In a major speech this Thursday, Keir Starmer savaged the Reform UK leader, accusing him of planning a “mad experiment” that will hammer family finances. The PM compared Reform’s uncosted pledges to Liz Truss, whose Tory government sent mortgage rates rocketing with her tax-slashing mini-Budget.
Mr Farage hit back at the Labour leader, accusing the PM of “Project Fear 2.0”. However, economists have said Reform’s plans would blow a hole in the public finances, which included a promise to raise the tax free personal allowance to £20,000, costing up to £80billion alone.
Keir Starmer’s attack on Nigel Farage came just days after a YouGov poll revealed that the Reform UK leader is voters’ last choice to be Prime Minister. In the poll Brits prefered Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch or Sir Ed Davey over Mr Farage.
If you can’t see the poll, click here.
44% of the public backed the current Prime Minister to lead the country compared to 29% choosing Mr Farage when asked who would be the best PM out of the two. Asked about the poll results, Mr Farage said the UK did not have a “presidential election” and he needed a “team of people that look competent and capable of going into government”.
Attacking Nigel Farage and Reform UK’s pledges, Keir Starmer said: “He set out economic plans that contained billion upon billions of pounds of completely unfunded spending, precisely the sort of irresponsible splurge that sent your mortgage costs, your bills and the cost of living through the roof. It’s Liz Truss all over again.”
The Prime Minister went on to swipe at the Reform UK leader’s decision to jet off to Las Vegas today to appear at a Bitcoin conference. He said: “Apparently (Mr Farage) is in Las Vegas today at a casino, and it’s not a surprise, because he said that the Liz Truss budget in his view was the best since 1986. That shows his judgment. It shows what he’d do and the result would be exactly the same. I’m not prepared to let that happen.
“What Nigel Farage is doing is Liz Truss 2.0, same promises of billions and billions of pounds in unfunded cuts with exactly the same results. I feel very strongly it’s my responsibility to protect working people from being put through that ever again.”
It comes as the Reform UK leader was labelled a “political fraud” by the TUC after announcing headline-grabbing welfare and tax policies funded through controversial cuts to climate change strategies and diversity programmes. However, Mr Farage claimed Reform UK’s weakness was that it has never been in government and that newly-elected council leaders now needed to show the party is capable of governing.
Reform UK have found themselves under fire this week after Nigel Farage was savaged as a ‘poisonous man’ by Leader of Scottish Labour Anas Sarwar after he defended a ‘racist’ political advert. The attack advert in question claimed Anas Sarwar – who was born in Glasgow to Pakistani Muslim parents – will “prioritise” Pakistani people.
At a press conference that was televised to the nation on Tuesday, Mr Farage played a clip of the Labour politician which he said supposedly justified Reform UK’s advert. But the video did not show Mr Sarwar saying what the ad had claimed, leading the leader of Scottish Labour to label Mr Farage a “poisonous man who doesn’t understand Scotland”.
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