Starmer’s Standing on a Farage-Shaped Pedestal: The Race to the Bottom

Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage are fighting to be first in a race to the bottom – much like Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in last week’s Europa League Final.

It began when Farage casually promised benefits worth up to £80 billion, including tax cuts and scrapping the two-child benefit cap.

Keir Starmer felt the need to respond by organising a press conference in a glass factory just outside Liverpool. Starmer completed this 212-mile drive from 10 Downing Street to ramble for 20 minutes, claiming voters can’t trust Farage with their house, mortgage and finances.

Which is laughable, when you look at how Starmer’s Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has battered British businesses with billions of pounds of tax rises.

So, just like the Europa League Final – where an incompetent Tottenham were made to look good by an even more incompetent Manchester United – this is a spontaneous battle between two politicians, both attempting to clamber out of the dustbin of history.

The result? A boost for Keir Starmer – a disaster for Britain.

Farage: yesterday’s man and his magic money tree

Let’s take it chronologically, then, and unpick Farage’s steep promises.

Farage began by pledging to scrap the two-child benefit cap, restore the Winter Fuel Allowance and provide tax breaks for married couples. When you throw in the massive cost of increasing the tax-free income allowance from £12,500 to £20,000, Farage has racked up an £80 billion bill.

Farage’s Reform UK are behaving like excitable university students splashing out on almost 1,800 pints a year with their maintenance loan. This is wild economics.

How are Reform going to pay for all that? Scrapping net-zero, scrapping equality, diversity and inclusion projects and ending payments to house illegal immigrants.

Right. The first problem Reform have failed to realise is that their £45 billion projection from net-zero savings includes private sector investment. So Farage’s plan to save the UK economy is… [drum roll] barring companies from investing. Nigel Farage’s Britain, ladies and gentlemen.

In addition to a catastrophic lack of common sense, Reform’s maths needs serious work.

Farage has repeatedly claimed scrapping equality, diversity and inclusion projects would save £7 billion. However, Cabinet Office figures show that Civil Service EDI spending was just £27.1 million in 2022/23. I’m sure Reform would argue this is still too much – but in government, £27 million evaporates quicker than you can brush your teeth.

Whilst I obviously agree on restoring the Winter Fuel Allowance, increasing the tax-free income allowance to £20,000 is nothing short of dreamland. I assure you, if there was a way for a politician to let voters take home an extra £7,500 a year tax-free, it would have been snapped up quicker than you can say ‘tax’. Because a tax cut like that is an unequivocal vote winner.

Unfortunately, however, this policy is well-known to cost £41 billion. Imagine how big the magical mystical budget black hole would become – Rachel Reeves would be having kittens.

To sum up, I’ve not seen a politician make promises as wild as this since Jeremy Corbyn’s £48.6 billion Labour manifesto.

Starmer: the Tottenham Hotspur hypocrite of politics

If Farage is Manchester United, then Keir Starmer is Tottenham Hotspur – a disaster class of a Prime Minister, who doesn’t look so bad next to Farage. (P.S. Keir the Arsenal fan will hate nothing more than being compared to North London rivals Tottenham).

Where to start? Isn’t it ironic that Starmer’s aides chose a glass factory to hold his retaliative press conference. Surely they must know that old adage: don’t throw stones in glasshouses.

But that’s exactly what Keir Starmer did.

You can’t trust Farage with your money, your house, your finances, Starmer said. Maybe that’s true, but you certainly can’t trust Keir Starmer.

Let me remind you of what Rishi Sunak said during the General Election campaign back in June 2024: “you name it, Labour will tax it”.

Since then, Labour have battered Britain with £40 billion in tax rises – the vast majority hitting businesses and jobs with a National Insurance hike.

Pensioners have lost life-saving Winter Fuel Payments and, if Angela Rayner has her way, pension pot savings will be raided.

Family farmers who put food on our table have been hit with an unfair inheritance tax.

Education has been hollowed out with extra tax on private school fees, forcing more children into the already-oversubscribed state sector halfway through a school year – causing unbeknownst disruption.

First-time buyers have been suffocated, with the stamp duty threshold coming down from £425,000 to just £300,000 – in a country desperately lacking affordable housing.

It really is hypocrisy of the highest order for Keir Starmer to warn against Reform fudging your finances – because just look at what Labour have done.

The bottom lines

What does this all mean?

It means Keir Starmer is benefitting from Nigel Farage’s failures. The higher Nigel Farage climbs in the polls, the better Keir Starmer looks. That’s particularly true for swing voters looking for a safe pair of hands. Starmer’s hardly that – but many will think he’s safer than Farage.

And so, Keir Starmer is on Nigel Farage’s pedestal – to the detriment of Britain.

Just like Manchester United and Tottenham in last week’s Europa League Final, this is a battle to the bottom. Meanwhile, waiting in the wings – no guesses who this refers to – is Saturday’s Champions League Final, ready to remind you what a big game player looks like.

Image: Will Allen/Europinion