Keir Starmer said the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage had spent so much time in the US since becoming an MP in July he was ‘half expecting to see him on the immigration statistics’
PMQs: Keir Starmer mocks Nigel Farage for being in the UK
Keir Starmer has brutally mocked Nigel Farage for making a “rare appearance” in the Commons after his recent jaunts to the US to support Donald Trump.
The PM said the Reform UK leader had spent so much time across the Atlantic since becoming an MP in July he was “half expecting to see him on the immigration statistics”.
Mr Farage was last in the US during last week’s presidential election to support his chum Donald Trump who was re-elected to serve a second term in the White House.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, the Clacton MP Mr Farage smirked as he suggested the “whole House would like to congratulate Donald Trump on his landslide victory”. He also repeated his suggestion that the UK government should proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard in an attempt to “mend some fences” with the president-elect after claims of a third assassination plot.
Mr Farage added: “But within a couple of days we learned of a third assassination attempt, charges have been laid, and behind it are Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Has the time not come, Prime Minister, to proscribe what is so obviously a terrorist organisation?
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“And in doing so, not just do the right thing, but maybe mend some fences between this Government and the incoming presidency of Donald Trump’s, given that the whole Cabinet has been so rude about him over the last few years.” Last week the Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s previous comments as a backbencher about Mr Trump being a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath” re-emerged after the Republican leader’s election victory.
But in response Mr Starmer replied: “Well, I’m glad to see the honourable member making a rare appearance back here in Britain.” Prompting laughter from MPs, he went on: “He’s spent so much time in America recently I was half expecting to see him on the immigration statistics.
The PM added: “I congratulated the incoming President last week and we will work with him. But the point he makes about Iran is a very serious point and we will cross the House and with our allies on it. Obviously on the question of proscription we keep them under review.”
