Margaret Mullane blasts GB News before comparing ‘far-right’ Nigel Farage’s rise to BNP

Speaking at a Blue Labour fringe event, Ms Mullane claimed that community spirit helped repel the BNP in the 2000s and the 2010 General Election.

Ms Mullane said: “Sadly, an element of their [BNP] politics has never gone away, I never think it did. And now I see that conditions that are going to lead a lot of the people, particularly in my seat, in my very concerned, to be voting for Reform.”

When pushed by GB News after the event about whether she would compare Reform UK to the BNP, Ms Mullane added: “I do see Reform as far-right. But what I would say is, you’ve got to be very careful with labels like that.

“Everybody who votes Reform is not the far-right, that’s the difference.

“I do believe that Nigel Farage’s message and what he’s doing does align with the BNP.”

Ms Mullane also took a swipe at GB News, accusing the People’s Channel of “stoking the flames” by focusing its coverage on the Channel crossing crisis rather than austerity.

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However, the former trade unionist suggested that Labour could win over voters leaning towards Reform UK by tackling local issues, particularly through crime and housing.

Ms Mullane also urged Sir Keir Starmer to get a grip on the migrant crisis to thwart the rise of Reform UK.

She added: “The work needs to be done now to beat Reform on every platform, from the screen to the street.”

Despite taking a swipe at Mr Farage, Ms Mullane defended those who voted to leave the EU.

Dagenham & Rainham emphatically voted in favour of leaving the European Union, with 70 per cent of local residents backing Brexit.

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However, Reform UK Assembly Member Alex Wilson told GB News that Ms Mullane was being “utterly ridiculous” by comparing Reform UK to the BNP.

“Nobody did more to see off the BNP than Nigel Farage,” Mr Wilson said. “That Margaret Mullane has said this is just further proof that Labour has failed our country and has failed her residents in Dagenham & Rainham.”

But Ms Mullane’s decision to label Reform UK as “far-right” comes just over a decade after the BNP were all but wiped out in Dagenham & Rainham.

The BNP secured 12 wards in the 2006 Barking & Dagenham London Borough Council election, with Ms Mullane gaining her Village seat from Nick Griffin’s party in 2010.

Dagenham & Rainham, which has been held by Labour since 1935, elected Ms Mullane for the first time with a majority of 7,173 votes over Reform UK.

The Tories had come close to defeating Labour in the East London constituency in the 2019 General Election, slashing Jon Cruddas’s majority to just 293 votes.

However, More in Common’s latest MRP poll now gives Reform UK a 12-point lead over Labour in Dagenham & Rainham.

Meanwhile, YouGov handed Mr Farage’s party a nine-point lead over Labour in the constituency.

Labour MPs appear to be ramping up the anti-Reform rhetoric at this year’s party conference.

Speaking to the BBC this morning, Sir Keir decided to describe Reform UK’s announcement about axing Indefinite Leave to Remain as “racist”.

Sir Keir said: “I do think it’s a racist policy, I do think it’s immoral – it needs to be called out for what it is.”

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He added: “It’s one thing to say we’re going to remove illegal migrants, people who have no right to be here, I’m up for that.

“It’s completely different thing to say we’re going to reach in to people who are lawfully here and start removing them.

“They are our neighbours, they’re people who work in our economy, they’re part of who we are. It will rip this country apart.”

Firing back at the Prime Minister, Reform UK Councillor Laila Cunningham told GB News: “Our policy is not about responsibility. We’re not talking about ethnicity or background.

“We’re talking about who qualifies to stay permanently in Britain and who live off a system that British working people pay for.

“If Starmer thinks that’s racist, he’s on the wrong side of the British people.”