Why Starmer’s attack on Reform’s irresponsible policies could backfire | Richard Partington

For a politician who has done more than most to shape Britain’s current challenges, nothing seems to stick to Nigel Farage. Not the chaos of the post-Brexit referendum years; or the contradiction of his closed-border English nationalism combined with a fondness for courting nomad capitalists from Malaysia to Mar-a-Lago.

This is, of course, because the Reform UK leader is the agitator-in-chief. He has prodded successive prime ministers into action, but has not been in the driving seat himself. Things though are changing.

When Keir Starmer turned his guns on Reform last week, blasting the party’s “fantasy economics”, he made clear that Farage is now Labour’s most serious rival. While Kemi Badenoch has led the Conservatives into increasing irrelevance, Reform has marched on to…