Nigel Farage’s Reform is absolutely trouncing Labour in the polls. One suggests the party is set to inflict Labour’s worst election defeat since 1931 (!). And according to another, Farage’s group would win with a majority of 94 seats in the House of Commons if an election were held today.
New Sunday Times MRP poll has Reform UK winning an election outright with a majority of 94 pic.twitter.com/h4AaKfMAIp
This has driven Keir Starmer’s team into desperate tactics. Having failed to win support through effective governing, the prime minister is now trying instead to smear his opponents.
Starmer said on Sunday that Reform’s plan to scrap indefinite leave to remain—a type of permanent residency—for foreigners is “racist.” Polling suggests that almost half of Britons actually support the proposal, so it is no wonder that commentators have branded the PM’s comments as his ‘deplorables moment’—a reference to Hillary Clinton calling half of Donald Trump’s 2016 supporters a “basket of deplorables,” a statement widely considered to have played a role in her losing the presidential election. Even The Guardian accepted that the prime minister had taken a risk.
But rather than learn from this mistake, Labour doubled down during its conference in Liverpool this week.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting went a step further on Tuesday, saying—in that totally convoluted manner that is so typical of modern establishment politics—that Farage himself is a racist.
“If that leaflet directed against a proud Scot of proud Pakistani heritage was not racist, then I don't know what is. And if Nigel Farage allows that to go out from his party, what does that make him?”@WesStreeting weighs in on whether Nigel Farage is racist.@KateEMcCannpic.twitter.com/i7HX0DL3kU
Reform HQ is probably secretly delighted by these remarks, since they show just how weakened Labour has become. Farage jibed on Monday that the government is in a “state of absolute blind panic about how well we’re doing.”
Although in a speech later on Tuesday, he is expected also to say that the prime minister’s comments have endangered the safety of Reform candidates and activists and could lead to violence.
Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, added that Starmer and co’s attacks are a sign that “Labour favour overseas citizens over British citizens.” Much of this will no doubt be remembered when voters next go to the polls.
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_.
