Reform UK has stormed to a 10-point lead over Labour as a staggering new poll shows Sir Keir Starmer’s Conference speech has massively backfired.
Sir Keir launched several attacks on Mr Farage, describing him as the “enemy” with “racist” policies and even describing the dinghies crossing the Channel full of illegal migrants as “Farage boats”.
But a new poll suggested that the Prime Minister’s scathing tactics appear to have blown up in his face.
The More in Common poll of more than 2,000 people found Reform’s lead over Labour has jumped from three points to 10 in just a week.
Mr Farage’s party leapt two points to 30 per cent, while Labour slumped five points to 20 per cent.
Sir Keir denied he was trying to incite violence against the Reform UK leader, but blamed him for the small boats crisis because of his successful Brexit campaign.
The Prime Minister told GB News: “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, in many senses, that are coming across the Channel.”
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Reform has stormed into a 10-point lead over Labour
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PAThe Reform UK leader said that “the Prime Minister is inverting the truth” and “is gaslighting the British public and attempting to blame everything on me”.
Mr Farage continued: “I am the devil. The Farage boats. I warned the entire British political establishment in 2020, Prime Minister, that we had a major problem coming down the track.
“I also asked the mainstream media why they’re not covering this. I predicted that it would lead to an invasion.
“Of course, I was absolutely demonised for daring to say the words, but 180,000 people later, perhaps I was right.”
Experts have called the so-called Dublin Convention, which governed the returns to the EU, very limited.
Tony Smith, former head of UK Border Force, said “hardly any” migrants had been sent back to France while the UK was in the EU due to bureaucratic hurdles.
He said Sir Keir’s claims are “nonsense” and the Dublin agreement was “not that successful at all”.
Mr Smith said: “I don’t know who is advising the Prime Minister, but whoever it is, they have not done their homework.
Sir Keir’s plan to attack Mr Farage has backfired
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PA“They are clearly putting out false messaging, trying to deflect from the problem they’ve got.”
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy had to backtrack on his claim that Mr Farage “flirted” with the Hitler Youth, admitting he had no evidence for the claim.
Discussing Mr Lammy’s comments, Danny Kruger said: “The consequence of what this Prime Minister and David Lammy and others have done could well be to cause political trouble of this very serious nature, including physical violence.
“I think he is playing with fire by using this total slur. The worst thing you can say about someone these days is to call them racist or to call them a Nazi, and that is what the Labour Party has done to us this week.”