Lord Heseltine has said Reform UK are the modern day equivalent of the “right wing fascists of the 1930s.”
Speaking at the Tory Party conference this week, Lord Heseltine urged his party to denounce the “populist extremism” of Nigel Farage.
In a speech at a European Movement fringe meeting, the Tory peer said populist parties such as Reform, Germany’s AfD and France’s Front National, are “on the march” in Europe, Sky News reports.
Lord Heseltine said they were the “right-wing equivalents of the fascists in the ’30s”.
And he added later: “We will never, never, have any part in the populist extremism of Nigel Farage. We have to deal with President Trump for the next three years, we don’t want his mouthpiece anywhere near Number 10.”
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Speaking to Newsnight on Tuesday, Lord Heseltine stood by his comments, pointing to the anti-immigrant rhetoric.
He said: “The fascists [of the 1930s] were anti-Jews, and protest today is anti-immigrant. The same argument, the same sort of human nature is being stirred up.
“Enoch Powell did the same in the 1960s and it was a wholly destructive contribution to a civilised society.”
When it was put to him by Victoria Derbyshire that Reform would argue they are simply in favour of tighter immigration control, Lord Heseltine responded: “I know, they would wouldn’t they? But you see it’s the stuff about saying they’re all rapists, robbers, criminals, that is the essence of the appeal of Reform.
“And you’ve got President Trump doing the same in America.”
Lord Heseltine took aim at the Tory Party’s attempts to copy Reform’s rhetoric, hitting out at leader Kemi Badenoch’s pledges to withdraw the UK from the European Convention of Human Rights and the European Court.
He also criticised the Tory leader’s policy to deport 150,000 migrants a year, accusing his party of demonising asylum seekers, and the promises to scrap climate change targets and carbon taxes.