29-05-2025
Starmer has just revealed his strategy to take on Farage
Asking voters if they genuinely trust Nigel Farage with the economy was a bold strategy by this Prime Minister.
Keir Starmer was setting out the Labour case against the insurgent force of Reform UK following a series of opinion polls giving Farage's party a decisive lead over the main parties, and after its narrow but devastating victory in the Runcorn by-election earlier this month.
'That's the question you have to ask about Nigel Farage,' the Prime Minister told an audience of business leaders in the north-west. 'Can you trust him? Can you trust him with your future? Can you trust him with your jobs? Can you trust him with your mortgages, your pensions, your bills? [Farage] set out economic plans that contain billions upon billions 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.'
Strong stuff, and handily exploiting the focus group-identified anger that many voters still feel about the Truss Interregnum, which many still blame for the country's current economic woes. And there is no denying that Starmer is at least party right in his criticisms of Reform and its implausible programme for government (although it feels like a day trip through Alice in Wonderland when the Labour Party is accusing a party to its right of irresponsibility by advocating for the scrapping of the Conservatives' two-child benefit threshold).
But the event, rather than presenting solid alternative policies to Farage, saw Starmer merely reheating phrases and sound bites that have been well-aired since last year's general election, despite signs that fundamental policy reforms – the scrapping of the Winter Heating Allowance for wealthier pensioners, for example, or potential swingeing cuts to benefits – are on the cards following a public backlash and back bench unhappiness.
And given Starmer's own appalling approval ratings and the many accusations against him of broken promises, right from the very start of his leadership of his party, can he afford to accuse anyone else of being untrustworthy?
More significant than actual policy solutions to the Reform threat was the fact that the event was taking place at all. Like John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, who last month held a cross-party summit to discuss how to deal with the 'far-Right' threat to democracy, Starmer chose to confront the threat of Reform head-on in an attempt to calm the nerves of his supporters who view Farage's progress since last year with increasing alarm. But so far, Labour's response, as exemplified by today's speech, lacks political coherence. And that may well be rooted in a failure to understand what Reform actually is and what it represents.
Starmer has been accused of allowing Reform too much of his own head space, and it is certainly true that it takes up a lot of his time. But what are the results of such contemplation?
This week we saw the latest attack on Farage personally from Labour, which accused the Reform leader of being a 'privately-educated stockbroker'. A couple of points worth mentioning here is that this is not the first time Labour has attacked Farage for his personal wealth, and we may assume it will have exactly the same impact as on previous occasions – ie, none.
It reminds me of Labour's woeful attempts to smear the Conservative candidate in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election in 2008 by dressing Labour activists up in top hats and tails to emphasise his privileged background. Inevitably he won the contest. Well, of course he did: Labour never prospers when it attacks opponents for their wealth or the educational decisions taken by their parents. It was telling that less than a year after Tony Blair's departure from Number 10, the party had already forgotten the importance of working-class aspiration that the party's most successful leader (himself privately educated) had exploited.
Yet here we are with another Labour Government hitting out at a charismatic political leader for his educational background and his wealth, as if ministers believe that voters considering switching their allegiance to Reform were unaware of Farage's background, or even cared about it.
Those considering voting Reform, whether former Labour or Conservative voters, are not doing so because they have analysed Farage's policies and found them adequate to the task of government; they have not decided that Reform has a plausible alternative programme to steer the country right.
They are simply sick of the litany of failures and disappointments which have been served up by successive governments, particularly on cultural issues like immigration, DEI initiatives and trans ideology. It is a consistent under-estimation of that anger that has steered both main parties so drastically wrong. Voters don't support Reform because of their policies; they support Reform because it is not one of the old parties. 'A plague on both your houses' was never more enthusiastically deployed as a political strategy than by today's disillusioned electorate.
Where does that leave Labour – or the Conservatives – in terms of a political response to this insurgency? Certainly it should rule out any more silly attacks on Farage's personal finances or educational background, which sound increasingly panic-infused. Even attacks on the few policy announcements already made by Farage will have limited impact so long as Reform's chief appeal is to that section of the electorate who are now tainted with the stain of anti-politics.
Radical and unprecedented though it may sound, perhaps some solid, positive policies from the main parties could help turn the tide. Reform of the immigration appeal system, for example, to stop judges allowing paedophile rapists to remain in the country lest they be ill-treated in their homeland? Or how about halting and reversing the capture of schools and teachers by the genderist activists who have successfully peppered the curriculum – even for toddlers – with rainbow flags and advice on how to change gender?
There are plenty of other areas where the main parties could actually address the concerns of voters actively considering Reform. Repeating the Government's economic mantra since last year won't cut it, and neither will personal attacks on Nigel Farage. They had better think of something: the next electoral tests will roll round soon enough, and Labour at some point will run out of time. And excuses.
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