Wes Streeting has suggested that Nigel Farage is racist for allowing a Reform leaflet taking aim at Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to be distributed.
Speaking to Times Radio at Labour’s party conference in Liverpool, the health secretary was asked whether he thought Farage is racist.
This comes after Keir Starmer labelled Reform’s pledge to scrap Indefinite Leave to Remain a “racist policy.”
In response, Streeting referenced leaflets sent out by Reform earlier this year, which said Sarwar would “prioritise the Pakistani community.”
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He told Times Radio: “Let me put it this way, because I don’t have a window into Nigel Farage’s heart and soul: I remember the leaflet that Reform put out in Scotland, in the by-election, that said Anas Sarwar would prioritise the interests of the Pakistani community
“If that leaflet directed against a proud Scot of proud Pakistani heritage was not racist, then I don’t know what is. And if Nigel Farage allows that to go out from his party, what does that make him?”
Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Starmer drew a line in the sand between his government and Reform.
Addressing Reform’s IDL policy, he said: “I do think that it is a racist policy. I do think it is immoral. It needs to be called out for what it is. I think there are plenty of people who either vote Reform or are thinking of voting Reform who are frustrated. They had 14 years of failure under the Conservatives, they want us to change things.”