The Reform UK leader responded, telling The Telegraph: “To call somebody in politics an enemy is language that is bordering on the inciteful. I think it’s very strong language that smacks, frankly, of total desperation.

“The only enemy the British people have got is a weak Prime Minister allowing tens of thousands of undocumented young males into our country who would do us great harm.”

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden told the Express: “I think Nigel Farage has made a big mistake,” adding: “I don’t believe we should break a promise to people who are here legally and who’ve worked here legally. I don’t think it’s the British way to break your word in that way.

“He may try to wrap himself in the flag, but what I think he did was a very un-British thing to do.”

The Reform UK leader responded, telling The Telegraph: “To call somebody in politics an enemy is language that is bordering on the inciteful. I think it’s very strong language that smacks, frankly, of total desperation.

“The only enemy the British people have got is a weak Prime Minister allowing tens of thousands of undocumented young males into our country who would do us great harm.”

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden told the Express: “I think Nigel Farage has made a big mistake,” adding: “I don’t believe we should break a promise to people who are here legally and who’ve worked here legally. I don’t think it’s the British way to break your word in that way.

“He may try to wrap himself in the flag, but what I think he did was a very un-British thing to do.”

Nigel Farage rips Keir Starmer apart for nearly ‘inciting violence’ with ‘enemy’ slur

Nigel Farage has launched a fierce response to Keir Starmer after the Prime Minister used the language of an “enemy” while attacking Reform UK during a Labour conference speech, with the Reform leader arguing that such rhetoric could put politicians and activists at risk.

The confrontation marked another escalation in the increasingly direct battle between Labour and Reform UK, with immigration policy at the centre of the dispute.

Starmer used his Labour conference speech to make one of his strongest attacks yet on Farage and the political movement he leads. He accused Reform of promoting what he described as racist politics and said that those arguing for the deportation of people who had lived in Britain for generations were “an enemy of national renewal”.

Farage subsequently accused the Prime Minister of crossing a dangerous line.

The Reform leader argued that political disagreements should be fought through democratic debate rather than language that could encourage hostility towards political opponents. He said repeated descriptions of Reform’s policies as racist could also affect the way the party’s supporters, candidates and campaigners were treated.

The dispute has since attracted responses from both sides, with Starmer rejecting the suggestion that his speech amounted to incitement.

What Starmer actually said

Starmer’s remarks came during a wide-ranging conference address in Liverpool in which he sought to present Labour as a patriotic party and directly challenge Reform’s growing influence.

The Prime Minister said Britain should not be divided into competing groups of victims and attacked what he called the “politics of grievance”.

He then turned directly towards Farage.

Starmer said the Reform leader did not believe in Britain and argued that Reform’s approach to immigration represented a threat to the country’s idea of national renewal. He described the politics associated with Farage as racist and said people who believed that long-term residents should be deported were “an enemy of national renewal”.

The wording immediately became one of the most controversial sections of the speech.

Rather than simply criticising a policy proposal, Starmer’s choice of the word “enemy” became the focus of Farage’s response.

For Reform, the concern was not merely that the Prime Minister had criticised the party’s immigration proposals. It was that the language could contribute to a hostile political atmosphere surrounding Reform representatives.

Farage’s response

Farage responded by arguing that Starmer had moved beyond ordinary political disagreement.

He pointed to what he described as repeated attacks on Reform from Labour figures during the conference and said the party’s immigration policies had been subjected to personal and political attacks rather than being debated on their substance.

Farage argued that Reform wanted illegal migrants deported, foreign criminals removed and the welfare system restricted to British citizens rather than foreign-born nationals.

He said Labour’s characterisation of those policies as racist effectively placed the same label on Reform’s supporters and voters.

Farage also warned that such language could encourage extremists on the political fringes to target Reform politicians and campaigners.

The allegation was subsequently repeated by Reform policy chief Zia Yusuf, who argued that Starmer’s references to “battle”, “enemy” and “threat” were particularly concerning in the context of social media.

Those statements represented Reform’s interpretation of the political consequences of Starmer’s language. They did not establish that the Prime Minister had intended to encourage violence.

Starmer rejects the accusation

Starmer was asked directly whether his rhetoric risked inflaming tensions or encouraging violence against Farage and Reform activists.

He rejected that suggestion.

Asked about the allegation that his speech could contribute to violence, Starmer said it was “No, not at all”.

The distinction is important.

Political language can be criticised as aggressive or divisive without establishing that it constitutes incitement to violence. In this case, Farage and other Reform figures argued that the language created a risk, while Starmer denied that interpretation.

The available reporting does not establish that Starmer was calling for violence against Farage or Reform supporters.

The argument over immigration

Behind the dispute is a much deeper disagreement over immigration policy.

Reform has proposed significant changes to the UK’s immigration system, including ending indefinite leave to remain in its existing form and introducing tougher requirements for migrants seeking permanent residence.

Labour has strongly criticised those proposals.

Government ministers have argued that Reform’s approach could affect people who have legally lived and worked in Britain for many years. Reform, meanwhile, has presented the changes as part of a wider effort to reduce migration and tighten the rules governing settlement.

That policy disagreement was the immediate backdrop to Starmer’s speech.

The Prime Minister’s argument was that immigration rules should not be used to create what he sees as an exclusionary form of nationalism.

Farage’s counterargument is that tougher immigration controls are legitimate political policies and should be debated without characterising their supporters as racist.

The dispute therefore involves both policy and political language.

Why the “enemy” wording attracted attention

The word “enemy” carries a particularly strong meaning in political rhetoric.

Starmer did not simply describe Farage as a political opponent. His formulation connected those supporting certain deportation policies with an “enemy of national renewal”.

Reform interpreted this as a personal and political attack.

Supporters of Starmer’s position could instead understand the phrase as a rhetorical description of political forces he believes undermine his vision for Britain.

The difference between those interpretations is central to the controversy.

There is no evidence from the speech itself that Starmer was instructing anyone to threaten or attack Reform politicians. At the same time, Reform’s concerns about the potential consequences of inflammatory political language have been publicly articulated by several senior figures.

The debate therefore remains one about political rhetoric and its possible consequences rather than a demonstrated case of the Prime Minister ordering or directly encouraging violence.

A wider dispute over political hostility

The controversy emerged against an increasingly tense political environment.

Reform has become a major competitor in British politics, while Labour has sought to challenge Farage’s arguments on immigration, patriotism and Britain’s future.

That has produced increasingly personal exchanges between senior politicians.

The conflict is not limited to Starmer and Farage.

Labour ministers have repeatedly criticised Reform’s immigration proposals, while Reform politicians have accused Labour of failing to address public concerns about migration.

The language used by politicians has consequently become part of the political argument itself.

The question is whether strong criticism can remain focused on policies and political records without turning opponents or their supporters into objects of hostility.

The George Finch incident

The debate acquired additional significance after George Finch, a 19-year-old Reform council leader in Warwickshire, reported being physically assaulted in Nuneaton.

Finch said he had been called “racist” and “fascist” during the incident. Warwickshire Police investigated the reported assault. The Independent reported that Finch blamed what he described as dangerous political rhetoric, although those claims represented his own interpretation of the incident.

The incident was cited by Reform figures during the wider argument over political language.

However, there is no basis for automatically connecting an individual alleged assault to a particular speech without evidence establishing such a connection.

That distinction matters when discussing claims about political rhetoric and violence.

Reform’s wider concerns

Reform’s leadership has increasingly argued that its politicians face hostility because of the positions they take on immigration.

Zia Yusuf went further than Farage in his response to Starmer, saying that if anything happened to Farage, the Prime Minister would be held responsible. Sky News reported Yusuf’s comments while also noting Starmer’s rejection of the allegation that he was inflaming tensions.

Such statements themselves demonstrate how politically charged the dispute has become.

Critics of Reform’s response have argued that the party is overstating the meaning of Starmer’s words, while Reform maintains that politicians have a responsibility to consider the potential consequences of highly confrontational rhetoric.

Both arguments form part of the public debate, but they should not be confused with established evidence of intent.

The wider political context

The confrontation also reflects the changing structure of British politics.

Reform won five seats at the 2024 general election, while its national vote share was 14.3 per cent. The party has subsequently expanded its political presence and become a major focus of debate for both Labour and the Conservatives.

That development has changed the language of political competition.

Labour can no longer treat Reform simply as a fringe political movement. Reform has established itself as an important electoral force, while Labour has increasingly devoted attention to challenging its arguments.

Farage, in turn, has made criticism of Labour central to Reform’s political message.

The result is a cycle in which each side’s attacks provide material for the other.

Where the dispute leaves British politics

The argument between Farage and Starmer ultimately raises a broader question about the tone of political debate.

There is a legitimate distinction between forcefully opposing an opponent’s policies and suggesting that an opponent should be subjected to hostility or violence.

Starmer says his comments were political criticism and denies that they amounted to incitement.

Farage and other Reform figures argue that describing their movement and its supporters in terms such as “racist” and “enemy” risks encouraging hostility towards them.

The evidence available from the speech establishes what Starmer said, while the claim that those words amounted to incitement remains an allegation made by Farage and his colleagues rather than an established fact.

The controversy nevertheless illustrates how quickly political rhetoric can become a political issue in its own right.

Immigration remains one of the most divisive subjects in British politics, and the disagreement between Labour and Reform extends far beyond one conference speech.

For Starmer, the argument is about what kind of country Britain should become and how immigration policy should be handled.

For Farage, the central issue is whether voters should be free to support tougher immigration policies without being characterised as racist.

As both parties continue to contest the same political territory, the language they use to describe each other is likely to remain closely scrutinised.

The latest clash therefore offers a snapshot of a broader struggle: not only over immigration policy, but also over how fiercely political opponents should challenge one another while maintaining a distinction between democratic disagreement and language that could contribute to hostility.

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