Nigel Farage has launched a scathing attack on Sir Keir Starmer, telling the Prime Minister that it is “done” and “over” amid mounting pressure to resign.
Speaking to GB News, the Reform UK leader told Martin Daubney there is “no possible way” Sir Keir can survive the latest Labour scandal centring around Peter Mandelson, adding his party is “ready” for an election.
Delivering his verdict on Sir Keir’s fate, Mr Farage gave a clear message to the Prime Minister on GB News: “It’s over, it’s done. The game’s up, mate, and it’s time you recognised it.
“How on earth can the Scottish parliamentary elections go ahead when you’ve got the leader of the Scottish Labour Party saying he doesn’t support the national leader? That, to me, is the straw that does actually break the camel’s back, and it’s just now simply a matter of time.”
Arguing that the Prime Minister was already unpopular before the unravelling of the Mandelson scandal, the Reform leader said: “He’s lost legitimacy, he’s lost authority, events have moved way beyond his control, and I’m afraid it’s all down to his own grievous misjudgement.
“But remember, even before the Peter Mandelson case, he was already the most unpopular Prime Minister in living memory.”
He added: “Anas Sarwar in Scotland has come out and said we don’t want him as leader. It’s not even tenable that those elections go ahead with Starmer as leader.
“A six o’clock, you may well find backbenchers speaking rather more frankly than cabinet ministers who, whatever they think in their hearts, do not want to appear in the history books as the man or woman that held the dagger. I would suggest to you it’s much more likely that that is what’s going on.”
Nigel Farage has told Sir Keir Starmer ‘it’s over’ as pressure mounts on the Prime Minister to resign
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GB NEWS
Looking ahead to the May elections, Mr Farage said the predicted “catastrophe” in Wales may now also extend to Scotland.
He told GB News: “It looks more and more likely that in their sixth safest parliamentary seat of Gorton and Denton, that maybe the voters won’t back them there. The May 7th catastrophe that was Wales could now extend to Scotland as well.
“And ultimately this will be about not whether cabinet colleagues rally round, it’ll be about how many backbenchers speak out at six o’clock tonight and in the days to come. I do not believe there is any possible way he can survive this for very long.”
Asked by Martin how he believes the Keir Starmer era will be remembered, Mr Farage responded: “It’ll be remembered as a loveless victory in a general election that predominantly happened because of people’s disgust at the Conservative Party, and that it was a premiership with no goals.
“There was never a mountain in the distance to climb. There was never any clear direction of travel other than words like change that were trotted out. Much of what he did wasn’t even in the manifesto, and because there was no driving mission, events forced him to U-turn again and again and again. A rudderless prime ministership led by a man who, whatever his talents may well have been as a lawyer, is frankly just not a leader.”
Kemi Badenoch called for the PM to resign | GETTY
Issuing his stark prediction for when the Prime Minister will resign, Mr Farage declared: “If I was a gambling man, Martin, you know I’m a gambling man, I think he’d be gone before the end of the month. That is my view.”
As Martin argued that critics of Reform UK would say his party is “not ready” for a general election if it were to be called, Mr Farage responded: “We’ve taken in a handful of people in recent times who’ve been cabinet ministers. We now have people at the upper echelons of our party who’ve been in No10, who’ve been in Government, who know what they’re doing, and I think you’ll see we’re building a team.
“I’ll be announcing shadow cabinet positions over the course of the next few days, and we will be ready – if the election is in two months time, we will be ready. What happened the last general election was a disaster, but it was very much more an amateur party in those days.
“We will be ready, we will vet them, and I think you’re going to find some very high quality people who’ve never been in politics before. They’ve got real experience of the world and perhaps been successful as well who would want to stand for our lists. I know that that is going to happen.”
Mr Farage told GB News that a general election could be likely ‘this year’
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GB NEWS
Quizzed by Martin on when he will reveal his shadow cabinet ahead of a possible election announcement, Mr Farage joked: “Well, you’re jolly fortunate, Martin, because you know far more than I do about the people inside the party and what they want to do.
“I haven’t delayed anything, I haven’t promised anything for next Monday. I said over the course of the coming days, I will start to unveil the shadow cabinet. Simple as.”
Predicting what happens next for Labour if Sir Keir steps down, he concluded: “I think what comes next will be even worse. The Labour Party will move to the left, they’ll put taxes up, more entrepreneurs will leave, less foreign direct investment will come in.
“There could even be a run on the bond markets. And I’ve always said, Martin, that I thought a general election would come in 2027. I think there was a chance it could come at some point this year now.”