Keir Starmer humiliated as LBC's Nick Ferrari claims 'you're obsessed with Farage'

Keir Starmer was grilled on whether he is "obsessed with Nigel Farage" after repeatedly mentioning the Reform UK leader in his speech at the Labour party conference. In his address, Starmer accused Farage of "not liking Britain" and claimed the Reform leader has no interest in solving the small boats crisis, believing he wants to "feed off" the issue for political gain. In an interview with LBC, presenter Nick Ferrari questioned the prime minister on the Reform UK leader's claims that he has "an obsession with him".

"He says a lot of things that I don't agree with," Sir Keir hit back. He continued: "I am concerned to make the argument and I will, on behalf of the country that I love, this tolerant, beautiful, diverse country where we pull together as a country. I am deeply concerned about Reform because I think they will toxically divide our country and rip it apart. And I'm up for that fight because I think it is the fight of our times. It goes to the soul of who we are as a country."

Ferrari pointed out that Starmer mentioned Farage's name five times during his speech, declaring: "You are mildly obsessed."

The Labour leader firmly disagreed, saying: "No, Not at all. There is a political divide, the like of which we have not seen in this country. We traditionally have Labour versus the Tories. That is not the fight next time around. This is not peculiar to the United Kingdom. You can see it all across Europe.

"The centre right parties are withering on the vine as the Tories are. It is a different fight. It goes to a more fundamental issue, which is who are we as a country?"

He added: "It's really important that I go out and fight for and defend for the country that I love, that I am a patriot of."

The conversation then turned to the recent spike in migrant crossings. Ferrari pointed out that 400 migrants arrived in the UK on small boats on Monday alone, pressing Starmer on what his government is doing enough to tackle the crisis.

Starmer defended his approach, reiterating his commitment to "smash the gangs" behind illegal crossings.

He said the government is "working really hard" to bring the numbers down and said the government is passing a borders bill to give law enforcement "more power at the border".

Hitting out at Reform, Starmer said: "What did Nigel Farage do? He voted against it. We've got a returns deal with France. Means we can return people to France. What does Farage say he'll do? Says he'll pull that down.

"We want to have ID cards so that you cannot work in our economy illegally. What does Farage do? He says he doesn't want it common factor here."

"He doesn't want to fix the problem. He wants to feed off it. That's the difference," he added.