Rachel Reeves has been branded an “ethno nationalist” after being accused of equating black Britons to foreign nationals.
The race row erupted after Reform UK’s policy chief Zia Yusuf suggested the Chancellor had misunderstood Nigel Farage’s position on the two-child benefit cap.
Mr Farage announced Reform UK would only lift the two-child benefit cap for British families, with the Reform UK leader warning: “It’s going to start to benefit huge numbers of foreign-born people.”
However, Ms Reeves claimed Reform UK was opting to keep children in poverty based on their skin colour.
“I don’t really care what colour a kid’s skin is – some deserve to be in poverty and some don’t? That makes me pretty angry,” the Chancellor told The Guardian.
“Does Nigel Farage want to go around and say: ‘White? Yeah, you can have the money. Black? No, I’m sorry, it’s not for you.’ What sort of country does he think we are?
“If you’re the mum next door who works in the NHS, has lived here all her life, her kids lived here all their life, but she was born somewhere else – we’re saying that that family deserves to grow up in poverty whereas the one next door doesn’t? That’s not the sort of country I believe in.”
Mr Yusuf responded with fury on social media, questioning what Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Justice Secretary David Lammy would make of Ms Reeves’s comments.
Rachel Reeves branded ‘racist ethno nationalist’ after being accused of ‘equating black people to foreigners’
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PA
He said: “Rachel Reeves comes out as an ethno nationalist.
“She believes only white people can be British. She’s accused Nigel Farage of racism for wanting to keep the two-child cap in place for everyone except British-born families, equating ‘foreign-born” with “non-white’.
“Nigel said Reform would oppose lifting the cap for all because it ‘benefits huge numbers of foreign-born people’, underscoring the need to ‘prioritise British-born people’ for benefits and housing.”
Mr Yusuf added: “She equates Britishness with race, according to her only white people are truly British.
Zia Yusuf made the accusation
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PA“I wonder what Shabana Mahmood and David Lammy think about this racism from Reeves?
“Reform will end welfare payments to all foreign nationals, and put British people first.”
In a separate social media post, the Reform UK grandee called on Ms Reeves to resign.
The row overshadowed after Ms Reeves buckled to pressure from left-wing Labour rebels in her tax-hiking Budget.
The Chancellor announced the £3billion U-turn, with the Treasury insisting it will help lift 450,000 children out of poverty by 2030.
Mr Farage’s support for scrapping the cap comes with caveats, including a requirement for both parents to be working full-time.
Out of the 470,000 households affected by the cap, only 3,700 have two adults working full-time – less than 0.8 per cent of the total.
Meanwhile, nearly 350,000 migrant families could receive extra welfare handouts as a result of Ms Reeves’s Budget.
However, Sir Keir Starmer is expected to champion Labour’s decision to lift the cap on a visit to Bedfordshire later today.
The Prime Minister will also look to slam Reform UK and the Conservative Party, claiming their opposition “exposes the deep division and decline” of their respective agendas.
Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said the “most effective way to tackle child poverty is to build a stronger economy”.
He said: “Labour’s approach does the opposite. Because Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves do not have the backbone to stand up to their left-wing MPs, they are hiking welfare spending, paid for with higher taxes which are killing growth and costing jobs.”
GB News has approached Labour for comment.