Sir Keir Starmer has blasted Nigel Farage for promising an “irresponsible splurge” that will make ordinary families poorer in a major speech attacking Reform UK‘s tax and benefit plans. However, Reform has hit back, accusing the Prime Minister of a “desperate attack” because he is eight points behind in the opinion polls.
The war of words followed Mr Farage’s announcement earlier this week that he would reinstate winter fuel payments for all pensioners if he becomes prime minister, end the two-child benefit cap and introduce a new tax allowance for married couples. Mr Farage also reiterated plans to give millions of working people a tax break by increasing the threshold for income tax to £20,000. Labour is arguing that Reform has no plan to pay for these measures.
Speaking in the North-west of England, Sir Keir said he wanted to “protect” the public from Mr Farage, who he compared to former prime minister Liz Truss.
The Labour leader said: “Liz Truss bet the house and lost. £45billion in unfunded tax cuts, with no means to pay for them. Markets reacted, the economy tanked and we’re all still paying the price for mortgages, rents and bills that spiralled out of control.”
It comes after the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said Reform’s pledge to increase the income tax personal allowance to £20,000 a year could cost between £50-80billion annually. Speaking at a press conference in central London on Tuesday, Mr Farage said his measures were “aimed at British families” as he announced plans to scrap the two-child benefit cap and fully reverse the winter fuel payment cuts.
I was in the room when Starmer said Farage is his real opponent
This is a milestone moment in British politics. Sir Keir Starmer said the stark choice facing the country was between Labour and Nigel Farage.
It takes a moment to sink in. A Labour Prime Minister thinks his biggest opponent is not the leader of the Conservative Party but this veteran Brexiteer. For the PM, Reform UK is the party to beat – and his strategy is to brand Mr Farage as the second coming of Liz Truss.
Mr Farage will be thrilled at the attention. Even before the General Election, he promised that Reform would be the real opposition to Labour.
The Labour leader summoned journalists to a cavernous factory floor in a once safe Labour constituency to denounce the rival leader as a threat to the prosperity of working families. He wants the country to think the Reform leader would unleash the turmoil that Ms Truss’s mini-Budget did.
“What Nigel Farage is doing is Liz Truss 2.0,” he said.
Farage accuses Starmer of ‘Project Fear 2.0’
Nigel Farage accused Sir Keir Starmer of “Project Fear 2.0” after the Prime Minister used his speech to attack the Reform UK leader.
In a post on X, Mr Farage said: “The Prime Minister is resorting to dirty tricks borrowed from the 2016 referendum campaign to attack me. This is Project Fear 2.0.”
The PM spoke during a visit to a glass factory in the North West (Image: Getty)
Conservative response to Keir Starmer press conference
Mel Stride MP, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, said: “This week we saw two men fighting over money. One already spending money we don’t have. The second wanting to spend even more.
“Seeing Nigel Farage and Keir Starmer‘s cavalier attitude to public finances in action has confirmed the Conservatives
“They are cosying up to the unions and making promises that can only mean higher borrowing, higher debts and higher interest rates. Reform and Labour are Jeremy Corbyn’s uniparty.”
Nigel Farage is ‘introducing poison into politics’, PM says
Nigel Farage is “introducing poison into politics”, the Prime Minister said, as he suggested a campaign video produced by Reform UK for the Hamilton by-election was divisive.
The advert claimed Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar would “prioritise” the Pakistani community.
The ad – which the SNP and Labour have demanded be removed by Meta – shows clips of Mr Sarwar calling for more representation of Scots with south Asian heritage, although he did not say he would prioritise any group.
Speaking at a campaign event in north-west England, Sir Keir Starmer said: “What we’ve seen with Reform in Scotland in relation to this particular video is manipulation. And it is, as ever with Reform and Nigel Farage, trying to divide people with a toxic divide, and to poison our politics. And I think our politics is above that, and that’s why I think it’s absolutely right that Anas Sarwar has called this out for what it is.
“It is toxic divide, it is introducing poison into our politics, and that is exactly what turns people off politics. And that is why restoring trust in politics is so important to my project and the project of Scottish Labour.”
Tories have ‘run out of road’, Starmer says
The Conservative Party has “run out of road”, the Prime Minister said, as he told reporters the choice for voters was between Labour and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Asked why he was focusing so much on Mr Farage’s party, Sir Keir Starmer said: “I do think that the Conservative Party has run out of road.
“Their project is faltering, they are in decline. They’re sliding into the abyss. And it’s very important, therefore, that we say that and identify that, but equally politics is about choices.
“And the choice at the moment is between the choice of a Labour Government that thinks stable finances are at the heart of building better lives for working people, or Nigel Farage and Reform, who only this week said they would spend billions upon billions upon billions, tens of billions of pounds, in an unfunded way, which is an exact repeat of what Liz Truss did.
“And it wasn’t Nigel Farage that lost, he’s all right, it’s working people across the country who lost out, and I am not prepared to allow that ever to happen in this country again.”
Farageometer (final score)
During a five-minute speech and six questions Keir Starmer mentioned Nigel Farage a grand total of 15 times, Liz Truss (8) and Kemi Badenoch (0).
PM grilled on scrapping two-child benefit cap
Sir Keir Starmer was again pressed on whether he would scrap the two child benefit cap after dodging the question twice before.
He insists he is “determined” to tackle the issue of child poverty and said he was proud of the previous Labour government’s ability to bring the figure down.
Sir Keir said: “I’m determined we’re going to drive down child poverty,” the Prime Minister said during a visit to a business in the North West.
“One of the proudest things that the last Labour government did was to drive down child poverty, and that’s why we’ve got a taskforce working on this.
“I think there are a number of components. There isn’t a single bullet, but I’m absolutely determined that we will drive this down, and that’s why we’ll look at all options, always, of driving down child poverty.”
Starmer: I want to protect people from Nigel Farage
The PM said he doesn’t need lessons from Nigel Farage on what it means to be a working person and the issues that matter to those most.
He called Reform’s leader Liz Truss 2.0, adding that he wanted to “protect people” from Nigel Farage.
Sir Keir said: “I know what it means to work 10 hours a day in a factory five days a week, and I know that because that is what my dad did every single working day of his life, and that’s what I grew up with.
“So I don’t need lessons from Nigel Farage about the issues that matter most to working people in this country.”
Sir Keir Starmer said he knows “what it’s like growing up in a cost-of-living crisis”, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage would “be exactly the same” as former prime minister Liz Truss.
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.”
He added: “Unlike Nigel Farage, I know what it’s like growing up in a cost-of-living crisis. I know what it’s like when your family can’t pay the bills, when you fear the postman, the bills that may be brought, and I know how much work we have to do.
“But there is not and never will be a magic wand that can wave away the need to manage the public finances properly. That is the foundation upon which everything rests, always.
“Now we were elected to change the country, but we were also elected to never put working people through a crisis like Liz Truss ever again.”
PM now taking questions from the press
Keir Starmer‘s speech has ended and he has started taking questions from the media.
It kicks off with a question about the PM’s tanking polls.
‘Farageometer’
Five minutes into his speech and Keir Starmer has already mentioned Nigel Farage seven times. (Liz Truss twice, Kemi Badenoch 0)
Starmer accuses Farage of being ‘Liz Truss all over again’
The PM claimed Nigel Farage would be “Liz Truss all over again”.
Keir Starmer said Reform’s leader would preside over an “irresponsible splurge” that would hit family finances.
Starmer: Proud of every aspect of the economy
Sir Keir Starmer has told of his pride in “every aspect” of the economy.
He hailed the UK’s trade deals with India, the US and EU while speaking to workers at a glass factory.
PM’s speech begins
Keir Starmer, with sleeves rolled up, has started speaking from a factory.
Keir Starmer to liken Farage’s economic plans to Liz Truss’
Short-lived Tory Prime Minister Ms Truss’s mini-budget spooked the financial markets in 2022 and led to a spike in mortgage rates.
Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow local government secretary, said the Prime Minister has “problems wherever he looks”.
He told Sky News: “The public’s lost interest in Labour. I mean, I don’t think they were ever popular at the despatch box – we were just unpopular, and we’ve got a big job to do on that particular score, but I believe we can do it.
“But also Reform, the ‘red wall’ as we call it, the working class voters, have completely lost faith in Keir Starmer and (Chancellor) Rachel Reeves and others, not least because of the disgraceful stripping away of the winter fuel allowance.”
Sir Keir is also facing danger from dissatisfied backbenchers, he said.
“So I can understand, he’s trying to basically aim his fire all around him. It’ll end up in a circular firing squad, I think, and it looks very bad for the Prime Minister right now.”
PM’s speech delayed because of transport issues
Sir Keir Starmer‘s speech this morning has been delayed because a train from Euston to the North West can’t make it past the first station.
Journalists are now having to pile into hour-long taxis to get to the speech.
Starmer to attack Farage’s ‘fantasy’ economics
Nigel Farage’s “fantasy” economics will lead to a Liz Truss-style economic meltdown, Sir Keir Starmer will warn, after the Reform UK leader set out his party’s proposed policies.
The Prime Minister is expected to urge the public to reject Reform UK’s calls to use “family finances” as a gambling chip on “unfunded” tax cuts.
This comes after the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the party’s pledge to increase the income tax personal allowance to £20,000 a year could cost between £50 to £80 billion a year.
Starmer panicking with late decision to hold press conference
Journalists were only told of Keir Starmer‘s press conference late last night. Clearly he wants the publicity so that eleventh hour notice suggests it was a last-minute decision to drag political hacks up to the north west of England so that he can have a pop at Nigel Farage.
Nigel Farage is enjoying the attention
The Reform UK leader surfaced on social media to say: “In the last 24 hours I have been attacked by Starmer, Badenoch, Swinney, Sarwar and just about everybody else — except for the voters. We must be winning.”
The battle for working people
This is the polling which will worry Sir Keir Starmer.
When it comes to which party people think represents working people, Reform has a slight lead over Labour on 19% v. 17%.
The YouGov polling is disastrous for the Conservatives with just 6% saying the Tories best represent working people. So much was made in recent years of the Conservatives becoming a party of the working classes – especially in the wake of the 2019 Brexit election – but that perception has evaporated.
Sir Keir gives every impression of seeing Reform as the party to beat. There are plenty of voters who don’t think any party represents working people (31%) or who haven’t made up their minds (17%). We can expect all the main parties to try and convince people who have to set an alarm to get up and go to work that they are on their side.
Starmer rushes to fortify Labour heartlands against Reform surge
The fact that the Prime Minister is going to an as-yet undisclosed location in the North West to deliver a speech attacking Nigel Farage and Reform UK shows how worried Labour is that the start-up party is leading in the polls.
This month’s local elections demonstrated that people were serious when they said they would vote Reform. A party only thrives if it can get supporters to go the polls, and Reform now has a new MP, hundreds of councillors and two mayoralties.
Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure from his own MPs to tackle Reform and prevent the collapse of the Red Wall. Labour needs to fight hard to hold onto seats where they have traditionally weighed the votes.
The nightmare for Labour is if Reform repaints the political map in England and Wales the way the SNP stormed through the party’s heartlands in Scotland. In 2015 the SNP won 56 seats (+50) and Labour under Ed Miliband lost 40, leaving the party with a solitary MP in Westminster.
The days are long gone when a Labour Prime Minister could focus on swing-seats that the Tories might win. Sir Keir needs to fortify Labour’s traditional strongholds – and that’s what today’s event is about.
