Wes Streeting: ‘Farage’s supporters have suddenly turned into snowflakes’
Wes Streeting tells The News Agents that Labour has "found its voice" against Reform UK, accusing the party of racism and warning voters to avoid "dancing with the devil."
Listen to this article
Read time: 3 minutes
In brief:
- Wes Streeting accuses Reform UK of racism over a Scottish by-election leaflet targeting Anas Sarwar's Pakistani heritage, and calls Farage's supporters "snowflakes" for complaining about Starmer's attacks while claiming free speech
- Keir Starmer launched his strongest attack yet on Farage, calling his policy to abolish indefinite leave to remain "racist", prompting Farage to warn the rhetoric could incite far-left violence against his party
- Streeting says Labour has "found its voice" against Reform after witnessing English flags pop up across the country, saying they are being used to make minorities feel uncomfortable
What’s the story?
Wes Streeting has a warning for those backing Nigel Farage; “Be very careful before you dance with the devil”.
The Health secretary was speaking to Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall, straight after listening to Sir Keir Starmer’s keynote street speech at the Labour party conference.
He says the Labour party have “found their voice” in the fight against Reform UK, who are currently enjoying a comfortable poll lead.
Some might say the discovery came on the eve of the conference, when Keir Starmer, in his most direct attack yet, accused Nigel Farage’s proposed changes to indefinite leave to remain laws of being “racist.”
The proposed changes could see thousands of people living and working legally in the UK deported.
In his speech, Starmer also said that Farage “doesn’t like Britain” and called him a “snake oil merchant.”
Quick to respond, Farage called Starmer’s speech a “very low blow”.
He went on: “This language will incite and encourage the radical Left - I’m thinking of Antifa and other organisations like that.
"It directly threatens the safety of our elected officials and our campaigners, and frankly in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder I think this is an absolute disgrace," Farage said.
He added: "I am completely shocked at his behaviour. I hope when he wakes up tomorrow he feels ashamed at what he has done.”
“All of his supporters have suddenly turned into snowflakes”
It’s not just Starmer that’s found his voice, education secretary Bridget Phillipson went one step further, calling not just the Reform policy “racist”, but also telling The News Agents that it’s “hard to escape the conclusion” that Farage himself is racist.
Streeting has now joined the fight, pointing to a recent Scottish by-election where Reform UK distributed a leaflet targeting Anas Sarwar, the leader of Scottish Labour.
The material included suggested Sarwar would prioritise the interests of the Pakistani community over others.
"Here's a question for Nigel Farage, if he's so inclusive and cuddly and kind," Streeting says, “why did his party put out a leaflet about our leader in Scotland saying that he'd be standing up for Pakistani communities?"
The implication, Streeting says, is obvious, with Sarwar being of Pakistani heritage.
“Nigel Farage likes a bit of straight talking, so let me just give him a bit of straight talking" he goes on.
"That leaflet was racist. It should be condemned, and he should apologise for it."
While Reform fears that accusations of racism could lead to far-left activists inciting violence on members of his party, Streeting doesn't share the same concerns.
"All of his supporters have suddenly turned into snowflakes today, saying, ‘Oh, how can people say this about him’,” he tells Jon and Lewis.
“If he is not racist, why did he let that leaflet go out?”
“We're finding our voice, because this is our fight”
Labour have previously faced criticism for not taking a firmer stance against Reform and its agenda, but Streeting says that after returning from holiday this summer and seeing Union Jack and English flags crop up all over the country, he found his voice.
He describes thinking; “What happened while I've been on holiday? Where have all these flags come from? It's not the World Cup, it's not a European Championship, it's not Eurovision, it's not the Olympics.”
“Flags were put up to try and make some people in our country whose skin colour or faith is different to mine feel uncomfortable, and I was ashamed of that,” he goes on.
“That's why we're finding our voice, because this is our fight. This has always been the Labour Party's fight against prejudice and injustice, and we won't stand for it.”
As health secretary, he has a clear message for Farage, who through abolishing indefinite leave to remain would deport NHS workers from overseas contributing to the health care system: “Farage says go home. I say you are home.”