Sir Keir Starmer has been preparing to blame tax rises on Nigel Farage and Brexit as the Prime Minister ramps up his attacks against the Reform UK leader.
Sir Keir is poised to swipe at Mr Farage by accusing him of “easy sloganeering” in the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign.
The Government is also expected to cite official figures which suggest Britain’s economy would be around £120billion bigger by 2035 if voters had not opted to leave the European Union, The Times has revealed.
The new attack comes as Britain’s financial woes have sparked fears of a big downgrade in productivity from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The Prime Minister made a similar attack last month, describing dinghies crossing the Channel as “Farage boats”.
Speaking to GB News, Sir Keir said: “I would gently point out to Nigel Farage and others that before we left the EU, we had a returns agreement with every country in the EU and he told the country it would make no difference if we left.
“He was wrong about that. These are ‘Farage boats’ coming across the Channel.”
The Prime Minister appears to have been referring to the EU-wide Dublin Convention, which includes a provision to return asylum seekers to the first member state they arrived in.
However, the UK’s final few years of participation in the Dublin Convention would indicate that Britain was a net recipient of asylum seekers.
Home Office data revealed that 676 asylum seekers were transferred from Britain in 2016 and 2017, while 1,019 illegal migrants were transferred to the UK over the same period.
The problem worsened in 2018, when only 209 out of 5,500 requests for asylum seekers to be returned were completed, while the UK accepted 1,215 migrants.
The figure comes in stark contrast to the 131 who were transferred into the UK in 2015, when 510 asylum seekers had been transferred out.
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Sir Keir’s accusation about Mr Farage’s role in facilitating Channel crossings also appears to overlook the Reform UK leader’s work exposing the migrant crisis during the pandemic.
Mr Farage recorded his first video from the Kent coast in April 2020, warning his viewers that the migrant crisis is worse than anyone thought.
The Brexit stalwart revealed less than a year later that he was contemplating a return to frontline politics as a result of the surge in illegal migration.
The Prime Minister’s pivot to blame Brexit for the country’s economic woes comes after pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain found that 62 per cent of voters believe Brexit has been a failure.
Economic concerns came out as the main concern among those who now hold a negative view towards Britain’s departure to the EU, trumping both trade relations and dividing the nation.
More than two-thirds of voters claimed Mr Farage is responsible for Brexit being more of a failure for the UK, including 26 per cent of 2024 Reform UK supporters.
Despite voters pinning Britain’s economic difficulties to Brexit, EU member states have also struggled in recent years.
Britain’s GDP grew by 0.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2025, significantly higher than the 0.1 per cent Eurozone average.
Sir Keir’s barbs will also fuel more fears from Eurosceptics that the former Shadow Brexit Secretary is planning to drag the UK closer to the EU’s orbit.
The Prime Minister was labelled as the “gimp of Brussels” by Boris Johnson after setting out unveiling his EU reset earlier this year.
Mr Johnson warned Sir Keir’s EU reset makes Britain a rule-taking, fishermen-sacrificing, alignment-bound vassal state, adding Labour was opening the door to a borders “sell out” while contributing to Brussels’ pots.
During his keynote conference speech last month, the Prime Minister also attacked the architects of the Vote Leave campaign.
He said: “Politicians who lied to this country, unleashed chaos, and walked away after Brexit.”
However, Sir Keir is now searching to plug a £41.2billion deficit and restore a near £10billion fiscal buffer.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves was blamed for stifling growth last year after hiking National Insurance Contributions on employers.
The decision even led ex-Labour donor Sacha Lord to end his membership, with business chiefs also condemning the tax-hiking measure.
Sir Keir appeared to open the door to income tax rises in August, refusing to rule out a levy increase when asked multiple times.
He said: “In the autumn, we’ll get the full forecast and obviously set out our Budget.”