Nigel Farage has praised Angela Rayner amid suggestions that the Deputy Prime Minister is the biggest threat to his party winning power.
The Reform UK leader insisted he was not “worried” about Ms Rayner becoming Labour leader after it was revealed she is the party’s grassroots’ favourite to replace Sir Keir Starmer.
But he added that she was “real” compared to other politicians on the left.
Speaking at a press conference in central London, Mr Farage said: “At least she [Ms Rayner] is real, none of the rest are.
“I don't think she's lied on her CV. Not sure she's got a CV...I mean, she is who she is.”
Reform made large gains in May’s local elections and won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, which had previously been one of Labour’s safest parliamentary seats.
To combat the threat from Mr Farage’s party, Sir Keir Starmer has sought to shift Labour to the right on social issues, particularly immigration and crime.
But in a leaked memo sent to the Chancellor, Ms Rayner suggested more left wing economic policies would play better with voters.
She urged an array of tax rises on the middle classes by restricting child benefits and personal allowances to balance the books, as well as cutting welfare for new migrants.
The Ashton-under-Lyne MP set out proposals to reinstate the pensions lifetime allowance and change dividend taxes in the secret memo, The Telegraph reported.
It fuelled rumours that Ms Rayner was quietly preparing a Labour leadership bid for if Sir Keir stepped down.
“I do not want to run for leader of the Labour party. I rule it out,” she told the BBC over the weekend.
“I’m absolutely focused on working with the PM and the cabinet. This is the honour of my life.”
But James Frayne, the founding partner of policy research agency Public First, said the leaked memo showed Ms Rayner wanted to focus on squeezing the rich and instead supporting lower-income families.
He said "a fascinating alternative strategy is now being pushed" by Ms Rayner, who he said "is recommending forcing Farage on to territory favoured by the Left".
Mr Farage said: “What we have learned, I think, over the course of the last week is that [Ms Rayner’s] ideas on tax, on saving are even more radical than those of Rachel Reeves, and she tends on economics, certainly, to be way, way out on the left.
“That is not a majority opinion by any means in the country, nor will it become one.”
Mr Farage also criticised Sir Keir’s leadership style, and said people were unhappy with the falling standard of living in the last decade.
He claimed that Labour are "terrified" of his party, and the Conservative Party are "finished".
A Reform government would raise the tax threshold from £12,570 to £20,000 if they came to power at the next election, he claimed.
Mr Farage announced that his party would also left the two child benefit cap and give married couples tax cuts in a bid to boost Britain’s birth rate.
"We built this party around three key principles, things that we think need to be fought for and defended, things that we think most people in this country hold the dearest in their hearts, he said.
"That is of course family, community, and country. That is why we believe lifting the two-child cap is the right thing to do. Not because we support a benefits culture, but because we believe for lower-paid workers this actually makes having children just a little bit easier for them.
"It's not a silver bullet, it doesn't solve all of those problems. But it helps them."
He added that this is "aimed at British families". Later in his speech Mr Farage said that he believes that "having a transferable tax allowance between married people is the right thing to do".
Economists and the Institute for Fiscal Studies have argued that Reform’s sums do not add up.
But Mr Farage insisted that his policies would be paid for by scrapping net zero, diversity strategies and migrant hotels.
“The national debt is now £2.8 trillion, and that's not just the last government, but this one too, are hopelessly adrift when it comes to government borrowing,” he said.
"We are going to make big savings. We will stand here before you in one year's time and show you the excessive costs that we've taken out of local government and at a national level.”
