Keir Starmer humiliates Nigel Farage by blasting him as 'Liz Truss 2.0'
Keir Starmer ramped up his war of words with Nigel Farage as he warned Reform UK's uncosted pledges would trigger economic chaos that would hurt ordinary workers
Keir Starmer has launched a ferocious attack on Nigel Farage - branding him " Liz Truss 2.0".
The Prime Minister turned his fire on the Reform UK leader in a speech in the north west today, accusing him of planning a 'mad experiment' that will hammer family finances.
He compared Reform's uncosted pledges to Tory disaster Liz Truss, who triggered market chaos and sent mortgage rates rocketing with her tax-slashing mini-Budget. But Mr Farage hit back, accusing the PM of "Project Fear 2.0".
Economists have said Reform's plans would blow a hole in the public finances, which included a promise to raise the tax free personal allowance to £20,000 alone costing up to £80billion.
The PM said the promises proved Mr Farage cannot be trusted, saying: "He set out economic plans that contained billion upon billions of pounds of completely unfunded spending, precisely the sort of irresponsible splurge that sent your mortgage costs, your bills and the cost of living through the roof. It's Liz Truss all over again."
He accused Reform of gambling in the same casino as Ms Truss, and took a swipe at Mr Farage's decision to jet off to Las Vegas to appear at a Bitcoin conference today.
Mr Starmer said: "Apparently (Mr Farage) is in Las Vegas today at a casino, and it's not a surprise, because he said that the Liz Truss budget in his view was the best since 1986. That shows his judgment. It shows what he'd do and the result would be exactly the same. I'm not prepared to let that happen."
Mr Starmer said he understood what it was like to grow up struggling to pay the bills, unlike privately-educated banker Mr Farage. He 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."
He added: "What Nigel Farage is doing is Liz Truss 2.0, same promises of billions and billions of pounds in unfunded cuts with exactly the same results. I feel very strongly it's my responsibility to protect working people from being put through that ever again."
Mr Starmer said the Tories were "sliding into the abyss" and suggested he sees Reform UK as the real electoral threat to Labour. Asked why he was focusing on Mr Farage, he said: "I do think that the Conservative Party has run out of road.
"Their project is faltering, they are in decline. They're sliding into the abyss." He added: "The choice at the moment is between the choice of a Labour Government that thinks stable finances are at the heart of building better lives for working people, or Nigel Farage and Reform, who only this week said they would spend billions upon billions upon billions, tens of billions of pounds, in an unfunded way, which is an exact repeat of what Liz Truss did.
"And it wasn't Nigel Farage that lost, he's all right, it's working people across the country who lost out, and I am not prepared to allow that ever to happen in this country again."
Mr Farage told the Sun: "In the last 24 hours I have been subjected to political attacks by everybody from Keir Starmer to John Swinney because Reform UK are winning.
"The Prime Minister is now resorting to dirty tricks borrowed from the 2016 referendum campaign. This is Project Fear 2.0."
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