Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.A cabinet minister has branded Nigel Farage a racist over a Reform plan which could see immigrants being deported even if they have lived in the UK for decades.
Labour deputy leadership hopeful and education secretary Bridget Phillipson comments are the most outspoken attack yet on Farage by a senior party figure.
They come a day after Keir Starmer said Reform’s immigration plans were “racist and immoral”.
However, he stopped short of saying the party was trying to appeal to racist voters.
Speaking on the News Agents podcast at the Labour conference in Liverpool, presenter John Sopel asked Phillipson: “Would you say Nigel Farage is racist?”
She replied: “It’s hard to escape the conclusion that because many of the things that he does and says, I think, drift into racism, it’s hard to escape that conclusion.”
"It's hard to avoid that conclusion given how often his words and actions drift into racism."
Is Nigel Farage racist?
Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson says he is.@jonsopel | @lewis_goodallpic.twitter.com/eKKnQB04nF
In response, Reform UK head of policy, Zia Yusuf said: “Labour’s message to the country is clear: pay hundreds of billions for foreign nationals to live off the state forever, or Labour will call you racist.
“Reform’s plan will ensure only British people can access welfare and that migrants contribute to society.”
Meanwhile, Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Manchester, refused to say Farage was racist at a conference fringe event.
Burnham said: “I wouldn’t make that statement about people, just off the cuff. I don’t know him well, I’ve met him a few times, so I’m not going to say that.
“But I do see policies that are discriminatory and extreme – and it worries me greatly that some of these things are entering the British mainstream.”
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