Keir Starmer: Nigel Farage is a ‘disgrace’

Keir Starmer has described Nigel Farage as a “toxic, divisive disgrace” after the Reform UK leader highlighted the number schoolchildren in Glasgow for whom English is not their first language. 

The prime minister accused Farage of attempting to “tear communities apart” and using such language as a distraction. 

Farage, in a campaign video posted online, said one in three pupils in the city spoke English as a second language, which he described as the “cultural smashing of Glasgow”. 

Asked about the comments while on a visit to the east end of Glasgow, Starmer said: “He’s a disgrace; he’s a toxic, divisive disgrace. All he wants to do is tear communities apart. 

“In Glasgow, the diversity, the compassion, is celebrated. It’s part of not just Glasgow but Scotland. I am proud that is part of what Scotland is. And I, as prime minister of the United Kingdom, want to serve every community in Scotland. I don’t go round picking and choosing and trying to divide. 

“I think it’s particularly poor that he’s reached right into children, now, to start that divide. All he’s interested in is the politics of grievance and the politics of division.”

He refused to label Farage a racist but did say he touted “racist policies”. 

First Minister John Swinney earlier said Farage was a “purveyor of racist views”. 

Speaking to the BBC, he said: “I think Nigel Farage's comments are quite simply racist. There's no other way to describe them.”

Starmer added that Farage was making such comments to distract from reports about comments he allegedly made as teenager, as well as avoiding questions on Reform’s links to Russia.

That follows the former Welsh leader of Reform, Nathan Gill, being sentenced to 10.5 years in prison for accepting bribes to make pro-Russian statements in the European parliament while he was an MEP.

Starmer suggested Farage was refusing to investigate his own party in the aftermath of the sentencing because they are a “pro-Putin party”.

The prime minister was in Scotland to promote measures announced in last week’s Budget to tackle child poverty.

One of the major moves was to abolish the two-child cap on benefits, which is expected to lift 450,000 children across the UK out of poverty. 

The Scottish Conservatives said the PM should be “apologising” for the “damage” the Budget inflicted, in particular hitting out at the failure to get rid of the windfall tax on oil and gas profits.

Finance spokesperson Craig Hoy said: “Scotland has two left-wing governments imposing ever higher taxes to fund unsustainable and reckless welfare programmes that will cost taxpayers billions. 

“Those policies urgently need to be reversed if we are to get the economic growth essential to fund frontline services.”

Starmer earlier met with the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Store, in Downing Street as the pair celebrated a partnership defence deal.

The prime minister will stay in Scotland until tomorrow, where he is expected to meet First Minister John Swinney.