Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says Labour prime minister Keir Starmer is finished, following the resignation of two top defence ministers yesterday.
Farage told LBC Radio that Starmer’s “premiership is over”. “It's only a matter of time. Already in the corridors of Westminster, the jockeying for position is going on whether [Andy] Burnham wins [in Makerfield] next week or not.
“There will be a challenge over the course of this summer to Starmer's leadership. It's over. I don’t think he’ll be leader by the Labour conference” in September.
The latest blow to Starmer’s collapsing authority came with the resignations of Defence Secretary John Healey and Armed Forces Minister Al Carns. In his resignation letter, Healey warned that Labour’s defence plans would fall “well short” of what was needed. Carns followed him out the door, warning that the British Armed Forces were underfunded and outdated.
Nigel Farage called Healey’s departure a “principled resignation”. Healey had wanted defence spending to reach 3% of GDP by 2030, which Starmer refused to match. The message, Farage told LBC, is clear: Starmer is “not prioritising the defence of the realm”.
“Let’s face the facts” about the dire state of Britain’s defence, said Farage. After 14 years of Conservative government and two years of Labour, “We haven't got an operational Royal Navy. We currently have 242 of our former Special Forces soldiers facing potential criminal trial.” As a result of government policies, the UK is experiencing “the most massive trouble with our own military, at a time when the world has never looked more unsafe”.
Starmer’s problems go far deeper than a few resignations. As Nigel Farage explained earlier this week in Makerfield, it has clearly been over for the prime minister since Reform UK’s “stunning success” in the May local elections. Reform gained 1,451 seats, many in Labour’s former Red Wall strongholds, while Labour lost 1,496.
“We fought 24 council seats here in the Wigan area and won 23 of them,” Farage told the media in Makerfield. “And that's why he's on the way out, because all those backbench Labour MPs know that if he stays, they are toast. I suspect they're toast anyway.”
Farage told LBC Radio that Starmer’s “premiership is over”. “It's only a matter of time. Already in the corridors of Westminster, the jockeying for position is going on whether [Andy] Burnham wins [in Makerfield] next week or not.
“There will be a challenge over the course of this summer to Starmer's leadership. It's over. I don’t think he’ll be leader by the Labour conference” in September.
The latest blow to Starmer’s collapsing authority came with the resignations of Defence Secretary John Healey and Armed Forces Minister Al Carns. In his resignation letter, Healey warned that Labour’s defence plans would fall “well short” of what was needed. Carns followed him out the door, warning that the British Armed Forces were underfunded and outdated.
Nigel Farage called Healey’s departure a “principled resignation”. Healey had wanted defence spending to reach 3% of GDP by 2030, which Starmer refused to match. The message, Farage told LBC, is clear: Starmer is “not prioritising the defence of the realm”.
“Let’s face the facts” about the dire state of Britain’s defence, said Farage. After 14 years of Conservative government and two years of Labour, “We haven't got an operational Royal Navy. We currently have 242 of our former Special Forces soldiers facing potential criminal trial.” As a result of government policies, the UK is experiencing “the most massive trouble with our own military, at a time when the world has never looked more unsafe”.
Starmer’s problems go far deeper than a few resignations. As Nigel Farage explained earlier this week in Makerfield, it has clearly been over for the prime minister since Reform UK’s “stunning success” in the May local elections. Reform gained 1,451 seats, many in Labour’s former Red Wall strongholds, while Labour lost 1,496.
“We fought 24 council seats here in the Wigan area and won 23 of them,” Farage told the media in Makerfield. “And that's why he's on the way out, because all those backbench Labour MPs know that if he stays, they are toast. I suspect they're toast anyway.”
Picture by: LBC.
