'This Is Panic': Defence Secretary Forced To Deny Keir Starmer Is Rattled By Nigel Farage
A cabinet minister has been forced to deny that Keir Starmer is 'panicking' about the rise of Reform UK.
John Healey defended the prime minister's decision to stage a hastily-arranged press conference specifically to attack Nigel Farage.
The PM compared the Reform leader to Liz Truss over his spending plans, and also accused him of 'poisoning our politics'.
On Sky News this morning, presenter Trevor Phillips told Healey: 'His speech had 1,100 words, 750 of them were about Nigel Farage. Why is he panicking?'
The defence secretary replied: 'He's not panicking.'
But Phillips went on: 'Why does the prime minister go into a hangar to talk about a bloke who's got five MPs on a week when the Russians are threatening, trade wars, all the rest of it. This is panic.'
Healey said: 'He's challenging a party leader, Nigel Farage. He's challenging a party that did very well in the local elections, he's challenging a leader that is soft on Putin, that wants to sell off the NHS, that is making massive promises that he won't fund and can't deliver.
'Why the prime minister is saying this is that we are facing across the board, irrespective of party, a crisis of people's confidence and conviction that government can make a difference and anything can change the things that they see are wrong in this country.'
He added: 'Keir Starmer is absolutely right to challenge Nigel Farage against these easy, soft solutions, and the promises that are false and he can never deliver.'
Defence Secretary @JohnHealey_MP reaffirms Keir Starmer is "not panicking" when it comes to the rise of Reform UK, stressing it was "absolutely right" of the PM to challenge Nigel Farage in a speech on Thursday.Read more: https://t.co/sgqH5W4vOi#TrevorPhillipspic.twitter.com/ZrjnsOROrC
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 1, 2025
The pair clashed as new analysis revealed Farage is on course for 10 Downing Street with a comfortable Commons majority.
A calculation based on the most recent opinion polls suggests Reform UK would end up with 362 seats if a general election was held tomorrow.
Labour would have 136 MPs elected, followed by the Lib Dems with 62 and the SNP with 38, the Electoral Calculus assessment suggested.
In yet more bad news for Kemi Badenoch, the Conservatives would be the fifth-largest party with just 22 seats.
The result would hand Farage a 74-seat majority, big enough for Reform UK to be able to govern without the need to rely on the support of other parties.
Nigel Farage On Course For Commons Majority According To Latest Polls
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Keir Starmer Says Nigel Farage Is Trying To 'Poison Our Politics'
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