{"id":207008,"date":"2025-10-12T04:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T04:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/207008\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T04:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T04:25:11","slug":"keir-starmer-planning-to-blame-nigel-farage-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/207008\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer \u2018planning to blame Nigel Farage and\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Keir Starmer <\/a>is reportedly gearing up to blame Nigel Farage <\/a>and Brexit for Britain\u2019s expected downturn in productivity at the Budget, as part of a new attack on the Reform UK leader. <\/p>\n

Treasury officials are bracing for the Office for Budget Responsibility<\/a> (OBR) to lower its forecasts for productivity growth \u2013<\/a> a downgrade that is likely to create an extra shortfall of around \u00a320bn at November\u2019s Budget. <\/a>The shortfall is expected to be filled by a swathe of tax rises. <\/p>\n

But sources told The Times Sir Keir<\/a> and chancellor Rachel Reeves<\/a> are planning to argue that this downgrade would not have happened were it not for Brexit<\/a>, pinning the blame on the Reform leader for leading the campaign to take Britain out of the EU. <\/p>\n

It comes after theThe Independent revealed that Brexit has cost UK business \u00a337bn a year as a result of a 5 per cent drop in trade with the bloc. <\/p>\n

While the government has gone some way to remedy the drag on trade, signing a fresh cooperation agreement with the bloc earlier this year, there are fears it still won\u2019t go far enough to offset the barriers caused by the UK\u2019s exit from the EU. <\/p>\n

Sir Keir has previously accused Mr Farage of \u201cfantasy\u201d economics, comparing him to former Tory PM Liz Truss and claiming his tax cut pledges would \u201ccrash the economy\u201d. <\/p>\n

But the prime minister has been ramping up his attacks on Mr Farage in recent weeks, using the Labour conference to claim his party is in \u201ca fight for the soul of the country\u201d with Reform UK, hitting back against the \u201clies and division\u201d of the right-wing party\u2019s populism.<\/p>\n

Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK have been surging in the polls (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

In an impassioned 54-minute speech at the party\u2019s conference in Liverpool, the prime minister pledged to defend British flags from the far right <\/a>after a summer in which they became the focus of culture wars.<\/p>\n

Claiming Mr Farage \u201cdoesn’t like Britain\u201d, Sir Keir insisted that Labour is the \u201cpatriotic party\u201d and used his address to set out his vision for a \u201cland of dignity and respect\u201d.<\/p>\n

He warned that the politics of Mr Farage and Reform, which he said would threaten the livelihoods of thousands of legal migrants, was \u201cracist\u201d and said anyone who argues that people who have lived here for generations should now be deported is \u201can enemy of national renewal\u201d.<\/p>\n

The PM\u2019s new line of attack, expected to come at the Budget, is likely to take place alongside a series of further difficult choices for the government. <\/p>\n

There is a growing expectation that the Treasury will have to increase taxes by as much as \u00a330bn in the upcoming Budget, as a result of sluggish productivity, government U-turns and higher than expected interest payments.<\/p>\n

Ms Reeves is facing increasing pressure to rescue the UK\u2019s troubled finances, but the government has repeatedly said it will not increase rates of VAT, income tax or national insurance at the Budget in November.<\/p>\n

Downing Street has been contacted for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Keir Starmer is reportedly gearing up to blame Nigel Farage and Brexit for Britain\u2019s expected downturn in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,1348,99,3355,164,3359,3353,44,3356,3354,3357,3358,1346],"class_list":["post-207008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-breaking-news","tag-business","tag-daily-news","tag-economy","tag-global-news","tag-inkl","tag-news","tag-news-app","tag-news-headlines","tag-news-today","tag-today-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}