A lot has been said and written about the problems facing Keir Starmer over recent weeks, and not all of it is printable. I myself have described him as the worst and most unpatriotic Prime Minister in British history.
But when Starmer wakes up this coming Friday, I think he is going to have some even bigger and more intractable problems to deal with. Let me tell you why.
After all the parliamentary debates and questions about the Peter Mandelson scandal, we now know one thing for sure. Left to its own devices, Parliament is incapable of getting rid of Starmer. We saw that with the vote last week. The Conservatives can’t get him out, and the spineless ranks of Labour MPs won’t do it.
But this Thursday, the Prime Minister must face the judgment of a far more formidable jury: the British people. That is the day when millions go to the polls in elections for local councils across England, as well as for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd.
This will be Starmer’s real day of reckoning, and one he cannot shrug off as easily as critical words from MPs or civil servants. Because Starmer’s Labour is not just facing defeat on May 7. I predict Labour will suffer an electoral bloodbath.
The famous ‘Red Wall’ of safe Labour seats in the North of England, the Midlands and Wales is about to be reduced to a smouldering pile of rubble. And the irreparable damage is going to be done by Reform UK, the party I lead.
Let’s be clear. The damage Reform UK is preparing to inflict on Labour in the so-called Red Wall areas at this election has simply never been done before.
In the 2019 general election, Boris Johnson’s Conservatives made big inroads to the North and the Midlands by promising to ‘get Brexit done’. Labour lost around 20 per cent of its vote there compared to the 2017 election. The number of Labour MPs in the Red Wall was more than halved, from 63 in 2017 to 30 in 2019. Many of those survivors only clung on by their fingertips.
Reform leader Nigel Farage has described Sir Keir Starmer as the worst and most unpatriotic Prime Minister in British history
By the 2024 general election, however, the pendulum had swung back and Labour had seemingly rebuilt its Red Wall. Why? Because, despite having an 80-seat majority, the Conservatives had simply failed to deliver for the country.
So Starmer’s party won back all bar one of the Red Wall seats they lost in 2019 – the exception was the former mining constituency of Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, which Lee Anderson won for Reform UK. The trouble was, Starmer’s Red Wall was predicated on his promise of ‘change’ from the Conservative years. That quickly turned out to be a lie.
Almost two years later, the main change people have noticed under Labour is that things have got even worse! The cost of living crisis continues unabated, taxes are even higher, immigration remains out of control, crime is rampant.
In this week’s elections, Starmer and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves are about to be presented with the bill for everything they have done to the British people. Voters who want real change, not more of the same, are turning to my party.
Polls have long shown Reform’s growing popularity, but it was a council by-election in a Labour stronghold two weeks ago that should really have given their party HQ something to think about.
Following the death of a Labour councillor in Salford, voters turned to Reform. Our candidate Michael Felse came from nowhere to win with 35 per cent of the vote; Labour’s vote simply collapsed.
In the run-up to the nationwide elections this week, I have been on a campaign tour around England, Scotland and Wales. I have visited Labour heartlands relentlessly, from Sunderland to Sedgley, Barnsley to Bradford.
Let me tell you, the sense of betrayal felt by working people is even stronger and more palpable on the ground. You cannot truly pick this up from Westminster, which is why I have made more than 70 visits and met 25,000 members of the public on this campaign so far.
Pictured: Sir Keir Starmer convenes a meeting on April 30 of criminal justice agencies following the Golders Green attack
These are the sort of voters whose support Labour took for granted for generations. Yet today the alienation these patriotic working people feel from a London Labour Party run by human rights lawyers is palpable.
Many of these good people see that Labour has become the party of welfare, not work.
They see ‘Rachel from Accounts’ repeatedly raising their taxes and coming for pensioners, savers, homeowners, small businesses, farmers, drivers – and just about anybody else who aspires to make a better life for their families.
Reform UK’s success in these Red Wall areas this week will be a forewarning to Labour ahead of the next general election, whenever it may come.
We have won over many of their former voters – as well as ex-Conservatives and those who have never voted.
These are people who now see my party as the party of real change, and probably the last chance to turn this great country around.
My promise to the British people is that we will stand up for the patriotic communities who work hard and play by the rules. We will stop illegal immigration, restore control of our borders, cancel the billions the UK pays to foreign nationals on welfare and deport all illegal immigrants.
We will act on the cost of living to ease the pressure on families. How? By removing VAT and green levies on domestic heating for a start to cut £200 off your energy bills, and by reversing Labour’s rise in fuel duty.
Pictured: Chancellor Rachel Reeves visits the Tyne Bridge on May 1 ahead of the local elections
We have already shown that real change is possible. The nine councils around the country where Reform UK has majority control have already saved hundreds of millions of pounds – by cutting waste not frontline services.
They have achieved lower average council tax rises than any other party. And they are fighting to stop taxpayers’ money being wasted on things like immigrant hotels.
That is why Starmer will face his day of reckoning this week. Parliament alone will not get rid of him. But the British people can. A crushing defeat for Labour in its heartlands will be the final straw.
A big vote for Reform UK in the Red Wall will send a signal to Westminster that enough is enough. It will finally force his own MPs to face reality and get rid of this Prime Minister who patently doesn’t believe in this country.
As a result, we are aiming to pull off something that has never been seen before in British politics, and reach parts of the electorate that no Right-of-centre party has.
We will advance further and deeper into the Red Wall than Boris Johnson’s Conservatives could ever have dreamt of – and kick Labour out of these towns and cities for good.
