Nigel Farage accused Sir Keir Starmer of “Project Fear 2.0” after the Prime Minister used a major speech to attack the Reform UK leader. The Labour leader insisted he wanted to “protect” working people from what the insurgent Reform party would do.
He claimed Mr Farage’s plans to spend “billions upon billions upon billions, tens of billions of pounds, in an unfunded way” was an “exact repeat of what Liz Truss did”. It comes after Reform pledged to restore winter fuel payments for all pensioners and scrap the two-child benefit cap in a move to outflank Labour with its traditional working-class supporters.
But the Reform leader warned that Sir Keir was using tactics from the 2016 Brexit campaign, when Leavers accused Remainers of using excessive negativity and scaremongering.
Mr Farage said on X: “The Prime Minister is resorting to dirty tricks borrowed from the 2016 referendum campaign to attack me. This is Project Fear 2.0.”
Sir Keir launched his attack on Mr Farage as he spoke during a visit to a glass factory in the North-west this morning.
He claimed the Clacton MP would not have protected jobs in industries subjected to tariffs from the US.
Sir Keir said: “Can you trust him? Can you trust him with your future? Can you trust him with your jobs? Can you trust him with your mortgages, your pensions, your bills? And he gave the answer on Tuesday. A resounding no.”
The Prime Minister also rejected Mr Farage’s pitch of Reform as “the party of working people” and his accusation that he has no connection to the working class.
Sir Keir said: “I know what it means to work 10 hours a day in a factory five days a week, and I know that because that is what my dad did every single working day of his life, and that’s what I grew up with.
“So I don’t need lessons from Nigel Farage about the issues that matter most to working people in this country.”
Asked why he was focusing so much on Reform UK, the Prime Minister said the Conservative Party has “run out of road”.
It comes as Reform is riding high in national opinion polls following its success in the local elections earlier this month.
