NIGEL Farage has been pilloried for demanding a General Election as he insisted Labour could not “shove another professional politician into No 10”.
The Reform UK leader said there must be an election after Keir Starmer announced his resignation on Monday.
In a statement, Farage said: “Reform demands an election, and we are ready to deliver radical change.
“If Labour thinks it can shove another professional politician into No 10, it has another thing coming.”
But MPs pointed out that Farage is himself a “professional politician”, having served as the member for Clacton since 2024 and before that as an MEP between 1999 and 2020. At the time he left Brussels, MEPs were paid around £7599.14 a month before tax.
Farage had his credentials as a “professional politician thrown back at him after his thinly-veiled jibe about Andy Burnham, who has worked in politics since 1997.
Natasha Irons, Labour MP for Croydon East, replied to Farage’s tweet, saying: “Mate, you have been a politician most of my adult life.”
Shadow education secretary Laura Trott said: “Dude you’re a professional politician…”
Reacting with a clown face emoji, former defence minister Al Carns said: “You're literally a professional politician mate.”
Kim McGuinness, the Labour Mayor of North East England, added: “Says the most professional of professional politicians. Leader of not one, not two but three political parities and before that he was a Tory.
“Stood eight times for parliament and served five terms in the European Parliament. Farage is the establishment. Never let him tell you otherwise.”
Jamie Mulhall, a Tory councillor in Derby, added: “You've been a ‘professional’ politician for nearly as long as I've been on the planet.”
