Nigel Farage has said Keir Starmer’s branding of Reform UK plans as racist “will incite and encourage the radical left” and “directly threatens the safety” of his party’s campaigners.
Starmer and his ministers have ramped up their criticism of Mr Farage’s party in recent days and particularly honed in on the recently announced proposal to remove the right of some migrants legally living in Britain.
The Reform UK leader said Starmer should feel “ashamed” of his comments, which he called an “absolute disgrace”, and accused the Prime Minister of descending “into the gutter”.
In his speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool, Starmer said a person who argues that “people who have lived here for generations” should now be deported is “an enemy of national renewal”.
The Prime Minister said: “This party, this great party, is proud of our flags, yet if they are painted alongside graffiti, telling a Chinese takeaway owner to ‘go home’, that’s not pride, that’s racism.
“And, conference, you say or imply that people cannot be English or British because of the colour of their skin, that mixed-heritage families owe you an explanation, that people who have lived here for generations, raised their children here, built lives here – working in our schools, our hospitals, running businesses – our neighbours, if you say they should now be deported, then mark my words, we will fight you with everything we have because you are an enemy of national renewal.”
In a live broadcast responding to Starmer’s speech, Mr Farage said that by labelling his party’s policies as racist, “by implication, Reform supporters, Reform voters, Reform sympathisers are racist too”.
He said: “Yes, if you think we should patrol our borders, you are, by the definition of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, all racists…
“To accuse countless millions of being racist is a very, very low blow.
“Why? Well, 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.”
Mr Farage also said: “This is a desperate last throw of the dice from a Prime Minister who’s in deep trouble, a Prime Minister who can’t even command the support of half of his own party. But, I’m sorry to say, I now believe that he is unfit to be the Prime Minister of our country.”
He said he was “more determined than ever” to beat Labour in elections in May.
The Clacton MP accused Labour of being “obsessive”, saying about himself: “Never before have I seen one name so dominate a conference”.
Several Cabinet minister have echoed Starmer’s tougher tone during Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy stressed that he was calling Reform’s policy of revoking indefinite leave to remain status from all legal immigrants racist, not Mr Farage himself.
He then went on to refer to the Reform leader as “someone who once flirted with Hitler Youth”, in an apparent reference to allegations that emerged in 2013 that Mr Farage sang Nazi songs as a schoolboy.
Mr Farage denied the allegations at the time, which stemmed from a 1981 letter reportedly written by his teacher claiming the schoolboy and others marched through a village “shouting Hitler Youth songs”.
Asked whether he thought Mr Farage was a racist, Mr Lammy told the BBC: “This is calling out his policies, his policies that would line people up who have a right to be in this country, who might be Indian, who might be Nigerian, and send them home. It’s not British. It doesn’t respect our values…
“I’m not going to play the man. I’m playing the ball, as our leader did.
“I will leave it for the public to come to their own judgments about someone who once flirted with Hitler Youth when he was younger.”
Lord Walney, the former independent adviser on political violence, said on X: “Nigel Farage’s response to Keir Starmer’s excellent speech was silly and shrill.”
He said Starmer’s choice of words when he called Reform’s policy racist “was not astute but it’s not credible to say they will incite the hard left to increased political violence against Reform. (Not least because these loons hate Labour and don’t exactly follow Keir’s lead).”
The Prime Minister referred to Reform directly by name three times during his conference speech, compared with four mentions of the Tories.
But he namechecked Nigel Farage on four occasions while not mentioning Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch at all.
Starmer was not as plentiful in his references to Reform as some of his Cabinet colleagues.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, speaking to the conference earlier on Tuesday, mentioned Reform five times and Nigel Farage eight times; while Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her speech on Monday to namecheck Reform nine times, along with a single mention of Mr Farage.
