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Sir Keir Starmer has lashed out at Farage, saying his pledges are ‘fantasy’ that would lead to Liz Truss-style meltdown of the economy.
You would be mistaken for thinking that another general election is around the corner – so intense is the latest tit-for-tat between the Prime Minister and the Reform leader, Nigel Farage.
The pair exchanged scathing remarks, with Farage throwing the opening punches by calling the government ‘very low-grade’ as he outlined Reform’s pledges focused on ‘family, community, and country.’
He said Reform would scrap the controversial two-child benefit cap, but paired it with the caution that his party ‘does not support benefits culture.’
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In a bid to position the right-wing Reform as the party of workers, Farage, a millionaire businessman, said Starmer ‘doesn’t know what it’s like to get up at 5am in the morning to go to work.’
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Scrapping the two-child benefit, which limits the number of children parents can get support for, is estimated to cost around 3.5 billion.
Sir Keir said in a speech today that Farage’s pledges are ‘billions upon billions of completely unfunded spending.’
He said: ‘Precisely the sort of irresponsible splurge that sent your mortgage costs, your bills and the cost of living through the roof.
‘It is Liz Truss all over again.’
He continued: ‘I want to protect working people from Nigel Farage because I want to protect them from what he will do, which is exactly the same as Liz Truss which will have a direct impact on their lives.
‘I don’t need lectures from Nigel Farage on what it means to be working and working people. 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.’
Liz Truss, whose premiership lasted just over a month, triggered economic chaos with her infamous mini-budget in 2022, including £45 billion of tax cuts.
However, the PM was less direct when asked about whether he would commit to lifting the two-child benefit cap.
He swerved the questions about his plans regarding the cap, which campaigners say has made child poverty worse.
While Starmer has remained tight-lipped on the cap, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said that reversing the cap would not be easy or cheap.
Farage labelled the recent UK-EU reset deal, which changed fishing, travel and trade red tape, as betraying ‘the very essence of Brexit.’
The Brexiteer’s other, more niche announcements included Reform’s own ‘Doge unit’ inspired by the US department previously spearheaded by Elon Musk.
The spat comes after a new YouGov poll said that Britons think other party leaders would make a better Prime Minister than Farage.
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