Why did Keir Starmer bother responding to Reform UK’s policy announcement?
Keir Starmer has hit out at Nigel Farage, comparing him to failed Tory leader Liz Truss in a speech attacking Reform UK’s pledges if it is elected into government. But why would the PM address this so far from another election, and could his plan backfire?
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In brief…
- Keir Starmer has said Nigel Farage is “Liz Truss 2.0” in a speech criticising Reform UK.
- The PM made the speech just days after Farage revealed Reform UK’s pledges if it became government. Experts have warned his promises would cost the UK around £80 billion to implement.
- The News Agents say Reform UK can no longer be ignored by the Labour government, but in trying to speed up the end of the Tory party, Starmer may regret losing the split vote between the UK’s two right-wing parties.
What’s the story?
Nigel Farage has been called a lot of things in his political career, but never "Liz Truss 2.0" - until today.
In a new speech Keir Starmer has compared the Reform UK leader to Britain’s shortest serving Prime Minister - who crashed the economy and quit the job after 49 days.
Starmer made the comments in response to Farage announcing a string of Reform UK pledges made earlier this week.
These included cutting NHS waiting lists to zero in two years, axing income tax for front-line workers, increasing tax duty threshold, reducing tax paid by businesses, drilling for more oil and gas, withdrawing jobseekers benefits after four months and increasing police numbers.
There were also pledges driven by conspiracy theories and social media, such as a public inquiry into "vaccine harm" caused by the Covid-19 jabs, scrapping diversity, equity and inclusion schemes, banning critical race theory from being taught in schools and "cancel culture" fines for universities.
Experts have criticised Farage’s pledges, saying they would cost the UK up to £80 billion to implement.
In a speech given today, Starmer said the Labour government was now "fighting the same fantasy" as it did when it was elected to "fix" the mess left by Truss's mini-budget of 2022.
He added that he addressed Farage's pledges because he sees Reform as Labour's leading political rival, describing the Conservative Party as "sliding into the abyss".
Polls support this, with Reform polling ahead of Labour in many conducted since Labour's win in the 2024 general election, some with a huge margin.
Has Starmer pounced on Reform too soon?
It is four years until the UK is likely to face the trauma of another general election, and Farage's pledges are unfunded, and more of a wish list than a concrete and plausible plan at this point.
Which is why Starmer making a public response has many people scratching their heads – The News Agents included.
Lewis Goodall says it is all because of what happened in Runcorn on 1 May 2025, when Reform UK won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six points over Labour – a seat it won comfortably with a 15,000 vote lead last summer.
"Since then, there has been a clear shift in political focus from Downing Street, which has been to basically almost stop talking about the Conservative Party," says Lewis Goodall.
"In the House of Commons, Starmer has basically said that the Tory party is on its way to death.
"Now he, and other government ministers, are basically saying that Farage and Reform will be their opponents at the next election."
Lewis adds that while Labour could choose to ignore Reform and its five MPs, it runs the risk of giving the right-wing party a "legitimacy and credibility" by platforming them as "the insurgent force" in UK politics.
"One of the most common criticisms that we, and lots of media outlets get, is that it focuses too much on Farage," Lewis adds.
"It's very hard to ignore Farage if the Prime Minister himself is pitching the political battle as being between himself and Farage.
"In fact, it becomes impossible to do so."
Jon Sopel says ignoring Farage and Reform would do little to halt its rapid growth in the UK, adding that he thrives on the attention – not from the mainstream media, but from his own making.
"We can't just let this go and ignore Farage, because he doesn't depend on conventional media," Jon says.
"Farage is brilliant on social media. He's brilliant at getting viral clips out, and doing all the stuff that the two main parties, Tories and Labour, struggle with."
He adds that public opinion also suggests that dragging Reform and its pledges into the spotlight is important when so many of the population is currently supportive of it.
"You can't just ignore what seems to be a polling reality, not just in opinion poll terms, but we saw it in the local council elections, where Reform is clearly on the rise," he adds.
Could the PM’s plot to end the Tories backfire?
Polling in the UK doesn't look good for the Conservative Party, with it placing third or fourth most popular in many of those conducted in 2025.
But while Starmer's words could be seen as an attempt to hasten the demise of his political rivals, Lewis believes this is a risky gamble that may come back to haunt him.
"What you don't really want to do is to give voters a hint about which party they should vote for," he says.
"The best hope for Labour in so many seats is exactly what happened in 2024, which is that the Reform and Conservative party vote is split.
"What Starmer is basically doing is saying to those voters that Reform is their best bet – and I'm not sure that's very helpful."