Even in war, there is opportunity.
With Reform UK continuing to regularly top the opinion polls, Labour Party bosses believe Nigel Farage has handed them a golden opportunity to spike their guns.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has injected fresh urgency into the search for peace in the three-year war between Ukraine and Russia.
Ripping up the post-war geopolitical consensus, the US president has been clear that he is willing to do a deal with Vladimir Putin over the heads of other western leaders – and then leave Europe to deal with the consequences.
Keir Starmer has been clear that the UK still stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine and its president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and on Sunday will host a summit of fellow leaders in an attempt to thrash out how the continent responds to the new world order.
The response from Farage and his party has been, rather typically, more muted.
When the prime minister stood up in the House of Commons on Tuesday to announce that, in response to the mounting global uncertainty, defence spending will increase from 2.3% to 2.5% of national income from 2027, only one of Reform UK’s five MPs was present – and it wasn’t the party’s leader.
It was SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn who dubbed them “Putin’s poodles”, but it is a tag Labour will be happy to deploy in the months and years ahead.
In Downing Street later, Starmer said: “Nigel Farage didn’t even turn up for the debate in parliament today. Nigel Farage is fawning over Putin. That’s not patriotism, that is not what working people need.”
HuffPost UK revealed in January how the party was planning to use Farage’s previous criticism of the NHS to attack Reform UK on the basis that his views will go down particularly badly working class communities.
It has now emerged that preparations were also being made for Labour to focus on the Reform leader’s previous comments about Putin and Russia towards the back end of this year.
However, according to one well-placed source, this strategy is now being “expedited” in light of the growing global uncertainty.
“We had always intended to do it eventually, but we’re now going to roll it out before the local elections in May,” they said.
“This is a real bruise for Farage and we intend to keep punching it.”
Looking at the most recent polling on voters’ attitudes to the Russian president, it’s easy to see why.
YouGov found earlier this month that Putin has a net approval rating with the British public of minus 85, making him the most unpopular global leader by far. To put it into context, Trump’s figure was minus 51.
Even with Reform UK voters, Putin has a score of minus 68. By contrast, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s approval rating is plus 48.
Labour strategists also believe Farage’s equivocation on Russia is especially damaging in the Red Wall and military constituencies where Reform UK need to make inroads if they are to have any hope of winning the next election.
A party source said: “Make no bones about it, the British public despise Putin, so I don’t understand what Farage thinks is in it for them by not condemning him.”
Asked by GQ magazine in 2014 which world leader he admired, Farage said: “As an operator, but not as a human being, I would say Putin.”
And during last year’s election campaign, the Reform UK leader came in for major criticism when he told the BBC’s Nick Robinson that the West had “provoked” Russia into invading its neighbour through the eastward expansion of Nato and the European Union.
An early sign of Labour’s new anti-Reform strategy came this week when five Labour MPs elected for the first time last July – Mike Tapp, Will Stone, Helena Dollimore, Fred Thomas and Paul Foster – wrote a joint article for The House condemning Farage and his colleagues.
They said: “Nigel Farage has openly stated that he admires Vladimir Putin. He has claimed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a consequence of EU and Nato expansion.
“Farage also repeated Putin’s demands last year that President Zelenskyy should hold elections before the conflict is over. This is openly parroting the Kremlin’s talking points. The truth is, we already know the timetable for elections in Ukraine. It’s after Russia withdraws its troops and the war is finished.”
“Regrettably, we are witnessing a malevolent influence creeping into our parliament — a group of MPs who reject British values, who seek division and who spew Putin’s propaganda.”
Apparently stung by the growing criticism, Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice – not Farage – told the Commons this week: “We at Reform stand united with the whole of this House in support of Ukraine and all brave Ukrainians against the monstrous tyranny of that most evil, evil villain, Putin.”
Labour peer Lord Spellar said he welcomed his party’s new emphasis on Reform’s track record when it comes to Putin, but warned that it will not on its own be enough to stem the rise in the party’s support.
He told HuffPost UK: “It’s necessary but not sufficient.
“Reform, like so many of the parties on the right across Europe, have got themselves into very convoluted positions over Putin because of this admiration of a strong man thing. It is now coming back to bite them, as it should.
“It’s not just Farage, though. His supporters have become fixated on the Russian strong man, even though he is a massive threat to our values and our interests.
“It’s absolutely right for Labour to highlight it because it’s good policy and it’s good politics, but it’s not sufficient because it’s not the fundamental basis of the appeal of Reform.
“What they should be worrying about is the fact that voters know all this about Reform, but they just don’t care. There’s lots more to be done but this is a welcome step.”
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