Sir Keir Starmer revealed just how worried Labour is about Nigel Farage’s Reform UK as he launched his party’s local election campaign in the iconic Red Wall seat of Bolsover. Some of the strongest attack lines were not aimed at Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives but at the insurgent party, which he accused of “fawning over Putin”, opposing workers’ rights and wanting to charge people for using the NHS.
The intensity of the attack shows that Labour consider Reform UK a true threat in next month’s local and mayoral elections, and the two parties will be fighting for first place in the Runcorn by-election.
He mocked Mr Farage’s party which has seen Rupert Lowe stripped of the whip.
He said: “They say they want to run the country. They can’t even run themselves.
“You can literally fit their MPs in the back of a cab – but they still don’t know where they are going.”
He claimed Reform cannot be trusted on national security or the health service, saying: “They want to charge people for using our NHS. They claim to be the party of patriotism; I tell you this – there is nothing patriotic about fawning over Putin.”
The Prime Minister also showed just how great a change he thinks has taken place as a result of President Trump’s announcement of a host of international tariffs, setting the scene for a trade war.
He said a “new era” has begun – and he claimed the scale of change is comparable to the transformation of the security landscape in recent months which has seen him scramble to assemble allies who are willing to help defend Ukraine.
Claiming that “we are in a changing world, very much in a new era, and therefore we have to act and lead differently,” he said: “We are at a similar point for trade and the economy. This is not just a short-term tactical exercise.
“It is the beginning of a new era.”
When it came to potential retaliation against US tariffs, he said: “We’re keeping all options on the table… This is driven, as most things are driven by me, in a calm and collected way with a cool head. This is the sort of pragmatism which we’re very good at in Britain in my view, which is keeping a level head and coolly, calmly taking the right steps for our country.”
The PM gathered activists and press in Bolsover at the industrial estate headquarters of Peak Pharmacy for the launch of the local elections campaign. The Labour leader’s attempt to rally the troops came against the backdrop of catastrophic polling.
Nearly seven out of 10 Labour members say the party is going in the wrong direction, according to Survation’s survey of self-declared members, with 64% saying last week’s spring statement was worse than expected. Chancellor Rachel Reeves now has a net favourability rating of -41%.
Sir Keir needs rank and file members to get out and drum up support for the party in the looming electoral contests to stop Reform making gains and putting down roots across the nation.
Thankfully for the PM, Angela Rayner – who introduced him at the event – commands huge popularity within the party. Her net favourability rating of +46 compares with Sir Keir’s of -13.
The choice of location was rich in symbolism. The Tory victory in Bolsover – the electoral home of Left-wing firebrand Dennis Skinner – in 2019 was one of the most iconic results in Boris Johnson’s landslide.
Bolsover is back in the Labour fold, thanks to Sir Keir winning an even bigger landslide last July. The campaign launch may have been on the edge of the Peak District but the Labour leader has a daunting mountain to climb to rebuild support in his own party, never mind the country.
