Labour’s Keir Starmer did a press conference at a factory on Thursday, with his top button undone and his sleeves rolled up, in a blatant attempt to portray himself as the representative of Britain’s working class.
The event was a response to Nigel Farage’s speech on Tuesday in which he laid out how a possible future Reform government could end decades of betrayal by establishment parties, promising to offer genuine support for families and to scrap costly—not to mention futile—taxpayer-funded vanity projects.
But if the prime minister’s broadly predictable speech has any effect, that will likely be yet another boost to Reform’s already impressive polling. Questions from the (mostly establishment) journalists present at the event—selected by the PM’s own team—highlighted the fact Starmer is on the run from Farage and could be looking at his demise, not even a year into the job.
Isn’t this speech today an admission that you have failed and Nigel Farage understands voters better than you? …
This is a speech that was very defensive, wasn’t it? …
Are you panicking because Reform are so far ahead in the polls? Is [the party] living rent-free in your brain? …
Do you think one of the problems is that Nigel Farage can approximate talking like a human being where you just resort to talking points and dodging questions? …
Are you not worried people will ask why you’re holding a press conference about Nigel Farage four years out from a general election instead of focussing on your plans for the country? …
[Do you] now view Farage as your biggest threat and biggest opponent?
The last question really wasn’t worth asking, since Starmer admitted that this was the case just last week.
Longtime political broadcaster Andrew Neil said these mainstream media jabs proved Starmer’s speech “really wasn’t worth the trip”—for the PM, at least—and that “attacking Farage simply backfired.”
Farage himself was clearly delighted, saying this and other attacks—including from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Scottish Labour boss Anas Sarwar—made it clear:
We must be winning.
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_.
