Nigel Farage cannot be trusted with Britain’s national security, the Defence Secretary has said.
Speaking on the fringe of the Labour conference, John Healey said there was “something deeply suspect” about Mr Farage, and accused him and his party of “looking up to” Vladimir Putin.
His comments come days after Nathan Gill, Reform’s former leader in Wales, pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for making pro-Russian statements while he was a member of the European Parliament.
Gill is understood to have had no involvement with Reform UK since 2021, and to have never formally been a member.
Asked whether Reform was a threat to national security in light of Gill’s plea, Mr Healey said: “I don’t think Nigel Farage or his party can be trusted with national security.
“And I think you can genuinely say one of the important acts of leadership that we’ve seen from Keir Starmer is to make sure that we, collectively with allies, have stood up to Putin.
“We’ve seen that recently with the drone attacks and the Nato response and the jets that we’ve sent to that eastern flank defence.
“While we’ve been standing up to Putin, you’ve got Farage and his party looking up to him, saying that, as Farage has, he’s the leader they most admire.”
Mr Farage has previously said he admired Mr Putin “as an operator, but not as a human being”.
He told GQ magazine in a 2014 interview: “The way he played the whole Syria thing. Brilliant. Not that I approve of him politically. How many journalists in jail now?”
Mr Farage has subsequently said he was “wildly misquoted” and, in the run-up to last year’s election, told the BBC: “I said I disliked him as a person, but admired him as a political operator, because he’s managed to take control of running Russia.”
Speaking at an event hosted by Politico on Monday, Mr Healey added: “We will challenge Reform every week between now and the next election.
“Because when you challenge Reform, when you challenge Farage, it’s clear he trades on anger, can’t supply answers, and people when they are taking a view of the next government will take a view of whether we, Labour, have made a difference to their lives, whether they think we’re acting in their interest, but they will also take a view on whether that’s a party that can be trusted on national security.”
