While most of the Labour Party appears set to rally around Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s line of attacking Nigel Farage and Reform UK as “racist”, one maverick-minded Labour Peer has denounced the smears against the Brexit leader and his supporters.
Turning back to the leftist playbook in a seemingly desperate attempt to regain public support, Prime Minister Starmer used his party conference in Liverpool this week to brand the immigration policies of Nigel Farage’s Reform party as “racist” and to label British citizens concerned over mass migration as an “enemy of national renewal”.
Starmer’s deputies were quick to jump on the bandwagon, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood saying that Farage was “worse than a racist“, accusing him of engaging in so-called dog whistle politics by pushing immigration crackdowns, some of which she also supposedly supports.
Justice Secretary David Lammy perhaps went the furthest, accusing Farage of having “flirted with Hitler Youth” over heavily disputed claims about Farage’s days as student. Lammy, who has a long history of accusing political opponents of being Nazis, such as President Donald Trump, was forced to backtrack on the claims within hours in an apparent attempt to avoid facing a libel lawsuit.
In contrast to the mud-slinging from the rest of his party, Labour Peer Lord Maurice Glasman joined Mr Farage on his GB News programme on Tuesday evening to denounce the attacks.
“First of all, before we go any further, I’m very proud to be Labour and I’m very ashamed about the accusation of calling you a racist,” Glasman said.
“I’m going around this conference, and I’ll be writing articles absolutely disputing that. I know, Nigel, that you are not a racist.”
Lord Glasman, the founder of the Blue Labour movement, which encourages the left-wing party to return to its working-class roots, has been a vocal critic of Labour and the Democrats in the United States for spurning Brexit and MAGA voters in the pursuit of woke purity.
The member of the House of Lords continued: “I know that you spend a huge amount of your time expelling racists from Reform, so please accept my personal apology, not from the party, but from me.
“I’m honoured to be on GB News. I’m honoured, actually, to think of you as a friend. So that’s a disgrace to me as well.”
For his part, Mr Farage has said that he is “more determined than ever” to “teach Starmer a lesson” when voters head back to the polls for local elections in May over the “abuse that has been heaped upon our supporters” by Starmer and his government.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on X: Follow @KurtZindulka or e-mail to: [email protected]
Read the full article here