Wes Streeting waded into the Nigel Farage ‘racism’ row today despite a Labour backlash.
The Health Secretary pointed to Reform leaflets targeting Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, suggesting he would ‘prioritise the interests of the Pakistani community’.
‘If Nigel Farage allows that to go out from his party, what does that make him?’ Mr Streeting told Times Radio.
Mr Farage has dismissed Keir Starmer’s claim that Reform’s immigration plans are ‘racist’, branding it an insult to the British public and evidence that the PM is panicking about the polls.
Deep divisions have emerged at the top of Labour over the attack with Sadiq Khan insisting he would not use the ‘really loaded word’ about Reform.
‘I don’t call the followers of Reform racist, I don’t call Nigel Farage racist,’ the London mayor said.
But Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, when asked whether she thought Mr Farage was racist, said: ‘Because many of the things that he does and says, I think, drift into racism – it’s hard to escape that conclusion.’
Asked during a round of broadcast interviews this morning whether he thought Mr Farage was racist, Mr Streeting said: ‘Well, let me put it this way, because I don’t have a window into Nigel Farage’s heart and soul.
‘I remember the leaflet that Reform put out in Scotland in the by-election that said that Anas Sarwar would prioritise the interests of the Pakistani community.
‘If that leaflet directed against a proud Scot of proud Pakistani heritage was not racist, then I don’t know what is. And if Nigel Farage allows that to go out from his party, what does that make him?’
Mr Streeting added: ‘I think there’s a climate in this country at the moment of a level of racism that we have not seen for a long time.
‘And I grew up in the 1980s when we had to deal with the BNP, the National Front on the Isle of Dogs, and my nan was a very active anti-racist campaigner.
‘I thought we’d seen those days long gone. But what we’ve seen over the course of the summer are some people trying to hijack our flag to say that it belongs to some of us, not to all of us, to use a symbol of national unity, the flag of our union, the flag of St George, to try and say that this is our country but not yours.’
The PM ramped up his rhetoric against Mr Farage’s plan to scrap ‘indefinite leave to remain’ in an interview with the BBC on Sunday. He said the proposal ‘needs to be called out for what it is’.
Mr Farage said the jibe was an ‘insult’ to millions who want the Government to get a grip on immigration.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘The Prime Minister has insulted those who believe mass migration should come to an end. Starmer thinks anybody here on a time-limited visa is entitled to stay in Britain for ever. Labour do not believe in border controls – and think anyone who does is racist.’
Highlighting a series of polls suggesting his party is on course to win the next election, Mr Farage said: ‘Keir Starmer has spent his entire weekend attacking Reform. This is the reason why.’
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp also accused the PM of ‘smearing people as racist’.
