Anti-Nigel Farage items for sale on the Hope Not Hate stand on the third day of the annual Labour Party conference in Liverpool, England, on September 30, 2025.
Oli Scarff / AFP
The PM’s attacks are particularly misjudged given the recent killing of Charlie Kirk.
The prime minister’s labelling of Reform as “racist” isn’t just desperate, it’s dangerous.
That’s what Reform leader Nigel Farage said in a video message after Keir Starmer’s Labour Conference speech on Tuesday, September 30th, noting in particular that after the killing of U.S. conservative activist Charlie Kirk, politicians should choose their words more carefully.
Starmer said over the weekend that Reform’s migration policies—supported by millions of Britons—were “racist.” Other members of his government chimed in, saying Farage himself was racist and that he had “flirted with the Hitler youth” while at school. (This latter claim, by Deputy Prime Minister (!) David Lammy, was later retracted.)
Responding, Farage said he can take personal attacks, but that “to accuse countless millions of being racist is a very, very low blow.”
Why? This language will incite and encourage the radical left. I’m thinking of Antifa and other organisations like that. It directly threatens the safety of our elected officials and our campaigners. And frankly, in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder, I think this is an absolute disgrace.
Left-wing violence is already on the up in the U.S.. There’s no reason to believe the same isn’t the case across Europe.
It is, of course, likely that Starmer doesn’t believe any of what he says about Farage’s politics—that he has simply been told to say it by some misguided advisor.
Reform’s leader described the attacks as “a desperate last throw of the dice from a prime minister who is in deep trouble”—in other words, from a man who is “unfit to be the prime minister of our country.”
Far from putting Farage off from his campaign for political reform, he says it has made him “more determined than ever,” adding
Don’t underestimate that.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
