The Labour Party has launched a pre-emptive attack on Nigel Farage, branding him a “private-educated stockbroker and career politician” whose policies would harm working families, hours before the Reform UK leader is due to deliver a major speech.
In a statement, Labour chair Ellie Reeves accused Farage of having “only ever cared about his own self-interest and personal ambition.”
Reeves claimed the Reform UK leader “wants to abolish the NHS” and challenged him to clarify his position on the state pension, which Labour suggests Reform will cut “to pay for his reckless tax cuts.”
In a speech on Tuesday, Farage is set to accuse Keir Starmer of being “one of the most unpatriotic prime ministers in our history”.
He will say the PM has “no connection with working people” and, according to reports, challenge him to go to a working man’s club in the north of England.
Ellie Reeves said: “Nigel Farage, a private-educated stockbroker and career politician, has only ever cared about his own self-interest and personal ambition, never about what is good for working people in this country.
“Farage wants to abolish the NHS, praised Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, opposed Labour’s landmark employment reforms and said Jaguar Land Rover, a huge employer, deserves to go bust.
“His Reform manifesto included billions of pounds worth of unfunded spending pledges but did not commit to the triple lock. Farage must urgently clarify whether he will cut the state pension to pay for his reckless tax cuts.
“Keir Starmer’s Labour government is delivering real improvement to working people’s lives through our ‘plan for change’ that has seen NHS waiting lists fall, wages rising faster than prices, and four interest rate cuts in a year, turbocharged by a trio of trade deals that are good for jobs, bills and borders.”
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Labour supplemented Reeves’ attack with a dossier recording “10 times Nigel Farage failed working people”, which includes accusations that he admires Vladimir Putin and holds “backwards views on maternity pay.”
In the dossier, Farage is accused variously of seeking to “scrap the NHS”; supporting the Liz Truss mini-budget and taking advice from the former prime minister; saying Jaguar Land Rover “deserves” to go bust; voting against the “against the biggest expansion of workers’ rights in decades”; having no plan beyond “crashing the economy”; opposing plans to give more money to schools; “ignoring” his constituents in Clacton; “admiring” Putin; opposing “secure energy technology”; and holding “backwards views on maternity pay.”
On this latter point, Labour cites a social media post Farage issued in 2010, rueing that “the European Parliament, in their foolishness, have voted for increased maternity pay. I’m off for a drink.”
The Reform leader will say in his speech in central London: “Starmer … is the most disconnected prime minister. He doesn’t believe in our country and voters are starting to see this with each day that passes.
“Labour said they were the party of change, but the change they have delivered has made people poorer, our streets more dangerous and British sovereignty weaker. He and his government are so hopelessly out of touch with working people. They U-turn on everything as they do not believe in anything.
“In ten months, his Labour government has let down countless individual communities. Pensioners, farmers, businesses, fishermen. They will not forget what Labour has done and they will vote for Reform.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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