Nigel Farage's Reform 'very much enjoyed' Prime Minister's immigration speech

Nigel Farage said his Reform party “very much enjoyed” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s immigration speech.

“We at Reform, a party that is alive and kicking, very much enjoyed your speech on Monday, you seem to be learning a very great deal from us,” the Reform leader told Starmer at PMQs on Wednesday.

In his speech, Starmer warned that the UK risks becoming an “island of strangers” without controls on immigration.

The Prime Minister’s critics have accused him of playing into Reform’s hands.

Starmer also announced a suite of proposals to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration, including plans to end the recruitment of care workers from abroad and ramp up English language requirements across the board.

Speaking at PMQs, Farage gave the speech his stamp of approval, and urged Labour to go even further “as a matter of national security”.

“Does the Prime Minister agree now is the time to declare the situation in the English Channel as a national security emergency?” Farage asked.

The Prime Minister agreed that the situation is “serious”.

“The last government lost control of the borders,” Starmer said.

He said the UK Government’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill is the first to give terrorism-like powers to law enforcement.

“Precisely so that we can get in before the crimes are committed, before people get to this country,” Starmer said.

“This is the most far-reaching provision ever for law enforcement to defend and secure our borders, and that’s why it is extraordinary that he, of all people, voted against it.”

‘Someone here has to call this out’

Starmer also faced criticism for his proposals from Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts.

“This Prime Minister once spoke of compassion and dignity for migrants, and for defending free movement,” she told the Commons.

“Now he talks of ‘islands of strangers’ and ‘taking back control’. Somebody here has to call this out.”

She added: “It seems the only principle he consistently defends is whichever he last heard in a focus group. So I ask him, is there any belief he holds which survives a week in Downing Street?”

The Prime Minister responded: “Yes, the belief that she talks rubbish.”

Starmer added: “I want to lead a country where we pull together and walk into the future as neighbours and as communities, not as strangers, and the loss of control of migration by the last government put all of that at risk, and that’s why we’re fixing the system based on principles of control, selection and fairness.”