Ding ding ding! John Healey was pulling no punches this morning as he took aim at Reform UK on the airwaves. Nigel Farage’s party has slammed Prime Minister Keir Starmer for presiding over a ‘democratic disparity’ because despite having four MPs and managing ten councils, the party has no representation in the House of Lords. But when quizzed on the accusation today on LBC, the Defence Secretary was having none of it. ‘I’m not sure that parliament’s going to benefit from more Putin apologists like Nigel Farage, to be honest.’ Shots fired!

When pushed on whether this description may be a little strong, Healey refused to back down. He added:

Look at what he’s said about Russia, look at what he’s said about Putin in the past. Look what he said in the middle of the general election campaign. At this point, when maximum pressure needs to be put on Putin to support Ukraine in negotiations, when the maximum condemnation of Putin is required from someone who is sitting down with Trump in Alaska but turning up the attacks on Ukraine, it needs all voices.

And I have to say, the voice of Reform is conspicuously absent in any of our discussions and any of our defence debates about Ukraine and about Russia. And I’d really welcome Nigel Farage weighing in alongside us and the other parties in the House of Commons to condemn Putin and to work, as we’re trying to do as well, to reinforce the prospects of peace.

The remarks come after Farage criticised Starmer for not having asked Reform to nominate any peers, with convention being that No. 10 asks opposition party leaders to nominate candidates for peerages. But it’s not the first time Starmer’s army has blasted Farage over Russia, with the Prime Minister in May telling MPs that Farage was ‘a state-slashing, NHS-privatising Putin apologist without a single patriotic bone in his body’. In 2024, Healey said the Reform man ‘would rather lick Vladimir Putin’s boots than stand up for the people of Ukraine’.

It’s the latest in Labour’s ramped-up attacks on Reform UK, after Science and Tech Secretary Peter Kyle last month accused Farage of siding with ‘people like Jimmy Savile’ over his party’s pledge to repeal the Online Safety Act. The gloves are coming off…