Reform’s suggestions Starmer is inciting violence ‘offensive’, minister says

Suggestions from Reform UK that the Prime Minister has incited violence against Nigel Farage are “offensive” and “ridiculous”, a minister claimed.

Home Office minister Mike Tapp also insisted that if any decision was made to reduce Mr Farage’s security, it would have come from an independent parliamentary security authority, rather than the Home Office.

On Wednesday, Reform’s head of policy, Zia Yusuf, said parliamentary authorities had reduced the party leader Mr Farage’s security protection “for inexplicable reasons”.

The opposition party also accused Labour of putting the safety of its politicians and activists at risk by branding Mr Farage’s immigration policy racist.

At the Labour conference in Liverpool this week, Sir Keir Starmer and his colleagues repeatedly attacked Reform’s plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain for immigrants legally in the UK.

Mr Yusuf described Labour’s attacks on Reform as the “most extraordinary 48 hours of demonisation and, I’m going to say it again, incitement to violence”.

Asked about the claims, minister Mr Tapp told Sky News: “It’s offensive. It’s ridiculous.

“There’s no way on earth the Prime Minister, or myself, or any MP across the House – on all parties, by the way – that would want any harm to come to another Member of Parliament.”

Asked about Reform suggesting Mr Farage’s taxpayer-funded security has been cut, Mr Tapp said: “I believe Nigel Farage is saying that this is the Home Office that are making that decision.

“Now they know full well that the Home Office do not make that decision. It is an independent parliamentary security authority that look after MPs’ safety, so it’s down to them.

“There’ll be reasons for it. Those discussions will have been had that I’ve not been privy to, so blaming the Home Office is, again, just trying to seed division with mistruths.”

In his conference speech, the Prime Minister said Mr Farage “doesn’t like Britain” and accused him of resorting to “grievance”.

Sir Keir later stressed he did not believe Mr Farage or his supporters were racist, while predicting his immigration policy would “tear our country apart”.

A YouGov survey showed that 47% of Britons consider the Reform UK party to be “generally racist”, while 36% do not.

Its policies are believed to be racist by 46%, while 43% say its voters are racist, according to the survey of 2,283 adults.

Since Mr Farage was told at the start of September that his round-the-clock Government-funded protection would be slashed, Reform UK donors have stepped in to cover the shortfall in protection, which is understood to cost more than £1 million per year.

All of the Clacton MP’s security is now privately funded after his team ruled that using both private and public providers would be unworkable, the Telegraph reported.