The prime minister says Nigel Farage and his supporters are not racist, despite insisting that the Reform Party’s immigration policy is.
The clarification came after Sir Keir Starmer and his colleagues stepped up their attacks on Mr Farage’s party, repeatedly branding Reform’s policy to remove the right to remain from some migrants legally living in Britain as “racist” and “immoral”.
The Prime Minister also declined to describe US President Donald Trump’s claims that London wants to “go to Sharia Law” as “racist”, though he dismissed them as "nonsense".
Speaking with Sky’s Beth Rigby following his keynote speech at this year’s Labour Party conference, Sir Keir clarified that he did not believe Mr Farage is racist.
“No, nor do I think Reform voters are racist,” he said.
“They’re concerned about things like our borders, they’re frustrated about the pace of change.
“I’m not for a moment suggesting that they are racist.”
He insisted he had been talking about a “particular policy”, claiming Reform’s plans would see migrants who live in the UK lawfully deported, saying “that to me would tear our country apart”.
The Labour leader, who described Mr Farage as a “formidable politician”, declined to say whether he believed his opponent was courting racists with the policy, but said minorities in the UK felt a “shiver down their throat”.
On Tuesday evening, David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, appeared to row back on claims he made to the BBC that the Reform leader had “flirted with Hitler Youth”.
The statement appeared to reference allegations that emerged in 2013 that Mr Farage sang Nazi songs as a schoolboy.
Mr Farage denied the allegations at the time, which stemmed from a 1981 letter reportedly written by his teacher claiming the schoolboy and others marched through a village “shouting Hitler Youth songs”.
Mr Lammy said: “I’m not going to play the man. I’m playing the ball, as our leader did.
“I will leave it for the public to come to their own judgments about someone who once flirted with Hitler Youth when he was younger.”
In a later interview with BBC News, Mr Lammy said the Reform leader had denied the allegations, saying: “I accept that he has denied it.”
“I wasn’t at school with Nigel Farage. I don’t know what songs he sang at school.”
In an interview with Nick Ferrari on LBC, Sir Keir rejected Mr Farage’s claim that his painting of Reform policies as racist “will incite and encourage the radical left” and threaten the safety of Reform members.
Asked if he had put his political opponent at risk, the PM said: “No, that’s not the case.”
Writing in the Daily Mail, Mr Farage said his opinion of Sir Keir had shifted as a result of the PM’s comments at the conference.
“We might disagree on our worldview, but until this weekend, I believed he was a reasonable human being,” he said.
“Now I’m shocked at his behaviour. I hope that when he wakes up this morning, he feels ashamed of what he has done to British politics over the past few days.”
In his interview with Sky, Sir Keir also refused to answer three times whether President Trump’s Sharia Law comments had been racist.
“I’m not going to start down the road of discussing whether things said by others are racist or not,” he said.
“I have been really clear that the idea that in London we’re introducing Sharia law is rubbish.”
Asked by ITV’s Robert Peston about polling from Ipsos, which suggests he is the least popular prime minister in history, Sir Keir insisted he was committed to leading Labour into the next election.
The final day of Labour’s conference on Wednesday will see speeches from Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
Following the conference, former House of Commons leader Lucy Powell will face off against Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson in a deputy Labour leadership hustings.
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