Nigel Farage has “blown a very loud dog whistle” by proposing an immigration policy that is “worse than racist”, Shabana Mahmood has said.
In a fierce attack on Reform UK, the Home Secretary said the insurgent right-wing party’s plans, which include abolishing indefinite leave to remain, were “immoral” and “extreme”.
In conversation with Tory peer Lord Michael Gove during an event on the fringes of Labour conference, Ms Mahmood suggested Mr Farage had sent an implicit signal to racists allowing him to claim “plausible deniability.”
“It’s a little bit worse than racist. If it was racist, in a funny way, it would be easier to deal with,” she told the audience on Monday evening.
“I think it’s immoral and I think it’s extreme.
“I think Nigel Farage is playing the trick that, I think, he tries to play very regularly, which is he will say something that, technically he can say it’s not racist, but what he really knows he’s done is blown a very, very loud dog whistle to every racist in the country.”
Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers have heightened their criticism of Reform in recent days following concerns among some in Labour that the Government has not been passionate enough in its fightback against the party.
Earlier on Monday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves defended the Prime Minister’s assertion that Mr Farage’s proposal to remove the right of some migrants legally living in Britain was “racist”.
But she said voters “can support the Reform party and not be racist” and questioned the popularity of their plans, which would force migrants who already have settled status to reapply for a new stricter visa.
“People support the Reform party for all sorts of reasons, but this policy is a racist policy,” she told LBC.
Asked again whether she thought people could support the policy and not be racist, she said: “Do people support that policy?
“I’m not sure many people do. Lots of people support the Reform party but we have to push them on their policies.”
Mr Farage hit back, accusing the Prime Minister of having “insulted those who believe mass migration should come to an end”.
“Labour do not believe in border controls — and they think anyone who does is racist,” he said.
Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Reform’s head of policy Zia Yusuf said Sir Keir “is literally the least popular, the most unpopular, Prime Minister on record, according to polls this week”.
Mr Yusuf said: “The reality is that the British people are sick and tired of having their legitimate concerns about immigration being sneered at, being belittled and ultimately being insulted for raising those legitimate concerns.
“What Reform have announced is that migrants must pay their way, speak English and not commit crime, and the fact that Keir Starmer considers that policy – and those very reasonable people, the majority, frankly, of the people in this country who agree with that policy – as racist, says everything about the fact that this is a Prime Minister circling the drain, who is speaking to the activists in his own party.”
The Home Secretary has also targeted indefinite leave to remain as part of immigration reforms announced at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool.
Migrants will have to prove they are contributing to society, including learning English to a high standard and having a clean criminal record, to earn the right to live in the UK under the plans.
Speaking at the Labour party conference, Ms Reeves said Mr Farage’s agenda is the “single greatest threat to our way of life and to the living standards of working people”.
She argued patriotism is “not measured in how quick you are to exclude, how loudly you shout, how willing you are to exploit every division and distort every challenge that we face”.
