Labour attack ad highlights Nigel Farage's praise for Andrew Tate
When it goes out on Sunday the advert will seek to exploit comments made by Farage in the Strike It Big podcast last year, when he praised Tate for defending 'male culture'.
The podcast, hosted by three young male influencers, offers listeners the chance to 'connect with the 1 per cent'. Topics covered by the show include 'who controls the world and money' and 'how to escape the system'.
Farage told the hosts: 'Tate was a very important voice for an emasculated … You three guys, you are all 25, you are all kind of being told you can't be blokes, you can't do laddish, fun, bloke things … that masculinity is something we should look down upon, something we should frown upon. It's like the men are becoming feminine and the women are becoming masculine and it's a bit difficult to tell these days who's what.
'And Tate fed into that by saying, 'Hang on, what's wrong with being a bloke? What's wrong in male culture? What's wrong in male humour?' He fed into those things. His was a campaign of raising awareness. His was a campaign of giving people, perhaps, a bit of confidence at school or whatever it was to speak up.'
Featuring a photograph of the two men together, the Labour advert states: 'Nigel Farage says Andrew Tate is an 'important voice' for men. Andrew Tate said women should 'bear responsibility' for being sexually assaulted.'
Tate is a self-proclaimed 'misogynist' and 'sexist' who has described women as 'intrinsically lazy' and said there was 'no such thing as an independent female'. He faces 21 charges in the UK, including rape, actual bodily harm, and human trafficking. In Romania, the influencer, who has more than ten million followers on X, faces similar charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. Tate denies all charges.
The attack advert, which was developed in-house by Labour HQ and will appear on social media sites including X, Facebook and Instagram, will reignite the row between Farage and the technology secretary Peter Kyle, who accused the Reform UK leader of being on the side of sex offenders like Jimmy Savile.
Kyle told Sky News last month that the new law was a 'huge step forward' for online safety, adding: 'Make no mistake, if people like Jimmy Savile were alive today he would be perpetrating his crimes online — and Nigel Farage is saying he is on their side.'
Farage demanded an apology from Kyle and called the minister's comments 'absolutely disgusting'. Kyle refused to back down, saying on social media: 'If you want to overturn the Online Safety Act, you are on the side of predators. It is as simple as that.'
Savile was a BBC TV personality who presented shows such as Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It but after his death it emerged he had been one of the UK's most prolific sexual predators, using his celebrity status to target children and young people.
A senior Labour party source said: 'We'll be looking to continue taking the fight to Farage in this area. He's not thought through his approach when it comes to online safety and we'll continue to expose it.'
The party was widely criticised in 2023 for releasing an advert about the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, which claimed he did not believe adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison. It included the claim that '4,500 adults convicted of sexually assaulting children under 16 served no prison time'. But the figure related to a period 11 years before Sunak became prime minister and the adults received a community sentence or suspended sentence, rather than prison.
The latest campaign comes after reports an 'attack team' has been created inside Downing Street with the specific remit of targeting Reform that is headed by Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff.
Reform has made significant inroads in winning over Gen Z women, who now represent a demographic the right-wing populist party has struggled to attract in the past. Its vote share among women aged 18 to 26 shot up in May — jumping from 12 per cent to 21 per cent after nationwide local elections, according to polling for the More in Common think tank.
Labour accused Farage of 'failing to prevent online radicalisation into extreme misogyny' after the Internet Matters charity found that 19 per cent of boys aged nine to 16 — around 650,000 — had a positive impression of Tate and could be at risk of radicalisation.
Farage pledged to scrap the Online Safety Act, which requires Big Tech to tackle algorithms that may expose children to harmful and illegal content, such as some produced by Tate and other members of the 'manosphere' like the Americans Adin Ross and Sneako.
Under rules that came into effect on July 25 as part of the act, social media sites and search engines must take steps to prevent children from accessing harmful content such as pornography and material that encourages suicide.
Farage called the legislation 'dystopian', claiming it threatened freedom of speech and open debate. When asked how his party would protect children, Farage said he did not know. 'Can I stand here and say that we have a perfect answer for you right now? No,' he admitted.
Last week Starmer warned that young men were getting sucked into a world of 'toxic masculinity' online. He said it was his duty as prime minister and 'as a dad' to call out the likes of Tate.
Ellie Reeves MP, the Labour chair, said: 'Nigel Farage's promise to tear up protections against online radicalisation by extreme misogynistic influencers is a dangerous sign of where Reform want to take Britain. It shows nothing but neglect for the next generation and will only serve to increase violence against women and girls.
'Young men are increasingly vulnerable to being radicalised into extreme misogyny online, which leads to real-world violence against women and girls when phones are put down and laptops shut. Tech firms must be held to account for algorithms that lead boys and young men to harmful and potentially illegal content online. It's shameful that Farage doesn't agree.'
Laila Cunningham, a Reform councillor, said: 'Women are more unsafe than ever before thanks to Labour. Starmer has released thousands of criminals back onto the streets early, with no regard for women's safety. I am calling on [the safeguarding minister] Jess Phillips to debate me on women's safety. She ignored the grooming gangs scandal and now she's wilfully deceiving voters on this issue.'
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