Labour deserves to be punished by voters for its disgraceful smear against Farage

Telegraph

4 days ago

This morning Labour MP Neil Coyle Tweeted a picture of Nigel Farage standing at the podium of his party's last annual conference. The legend on the lectern read: 'Reform will fix it'.
'This was Reform conference branding,' wrote Coyle, smugly confirming what his colleagues and fellow Labour MPs have been saying in the last 48 hours: that Farage, because of his opposition to the Online Safety Act, is 'on the side' of predators like the late Jimmy Savile.
Allow me to take you back to the dark day in October 2021 when Conservative MP David Amess was murdered by a knife-wielding Islamist in his constituency surgery.
David's former colleagues from across the House of Commons gathered to seek ways of avoiding the very real threat of Islamism, and so came up with the notion that if only everyone was kinder to each other on social media then everything would be alright in future. It was an illogical and cowardly turn for the debate to take, but let's go with it for now, for it suits our purposes in the current circumstances.
In what way does the Jimmy Savile smear – and it is a smear, whatever its defenders may claim – against Farage and his party align with this Government's belief that there is a need for more courtesy and tolerance – dare I say, kindness – in modern political discourse?
Let's face it: Peter Kyle, the Secretary of State for Technology, was suggesting Farage was on the side of paedos. There was no subtlety in the attack, there was no need to read between the lines. Labour might as well have emblazoned 'If you vote Reform, you need your hard drive checked' across its election literature.
And before the usual suspects take to Twitter to accuse me of being a closet Reform supporter, nothing could be further from the truth: I would vote SNP before I voted Reform (and if you are aware of my views about the SNP, that should tell you something). I want to see Reform defeated, because I think Farage would be a disaster for this country were he ever to achieve office.
If only Labour took the Reform threat as seriously as I do. Because this sort of smear isn't a serious political response by a mature political party. There are primary level kids in this country right now who are in their playground murmuring 'Come on mate, get a grip' to the Labour leadership.
But worse than being childish and downright stupid – not to mention politically incompetent, and we'll come to that – this whole drama is downright dangerous. When kind and good MPs like David Amess – and Jo Cox before him – can so easily fall victim to extremists, painting Farage or any MP of any party as being sympathetic to child rapists is a grotesquely dangerous and hugely irresponsible thing to do.
For a party that fought tooth and nail against holding a national public inquiry into Pakistani rape gangs, it is also a self-defeating tactic.
The sad thing is that Kyle, Coyle and even Number 10 – where the attack was approved, if not where it was originated – know this. Yet still they persevere and double down on an attack that would, in any sensible world, have made them feel ashamed of themselves as soon as it was uttered. For those of you who aren't keeping up: in 2025, cabinet ministers label those who criticise Government policy as apologists for child rapists.
God forbid that any MP suffers the same fate as either David Amess or Jo Cox, but if ever such an attack is ever repeated, calls for kindness and courtesy towards political opponents from senior Labour figures serving in cabinet today will be immediately dismissed as meaningless and insincere, for they will fail to include the caveat to such an injunction: 'Provided they don't threaten us electorally.'
The real stupidity of this attack is in its gross insult to those millions of Britons who are considering giving their vote in future elections to Reform. The phrase 'Project Fear' was deployed against the campaigns in support of the status quo in both the Scottish independence and the EU referendum two years later. It perfectly captured the negative mindset of those campaigns and provided a boost to the anti-UK and anti-EU efforts. In the case of the former, it almost led to their victory. In the case of the latter, it helped them across the finishing line first.
Yet the arguments used by both the Yes and the Leave campaigns never once plumbed the depths of sheer offensiveness, childishness and superficiality as what we have seen from Labour ministers and back benchers. Do they imagine that the voters are impressed?
Can we expect to see more of this strategy deployed in the months ahead? Perhaps Number 10, fresh from its impressive victories on welfare reform, the winter fuel allowance and Palestine, will authorise leaflets pronouncing that 'Nigel Farage is a poopy-head'?
If this is the best Labour has got, if these are the depths to which a once professional party has fallen, perhaps it should just concede now and retire from the game. Voters aren't stupid, and a strategy based on exactly that assumption will deserve to fail; they will deliver a damning judgement when the polls re-open.