General election: Nigel Farage ‘terrorising’ Tories and Rishi Sunak too afraid, says Lord Mandelson

Published

1 year ago

June 16, 2024

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Nigel Farage is “terrorising” the Conservative Party and Rishi Sunak is afraid to take him on, Labour grandee Lord Mandelson has told Sky News.

The former cabinet minister and spin-doctor, who masterminded Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide win, argued the job of the Tory leader should be to stand up to Mr Farage and Reform UK rather than seeking to appease them.

Trying to outflank Mr Farage had only served to embolden the maverick politician and make him stronger, the peer said as he appeared on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

Election latest

The decision of the former UKIP leader to contest a Tory-held seat at the election and take the reins at Reform UK has exacerbated Mr Sunak’s electoral woes, threatening to split the vote and the party.

Fresh polls gave an even bleaker outlook for the Conservatives, with one indicating the party on course to pick up just 72 seats.

A separate survey on Thursday night put Reform ahead of the Tories for the first time with 19% of the vote, compared with 18% for the Conservatives.

It led Mr Farage, who is set to launch Reform’s manifesto on Monday, declare his party was now the opposition to Labour.

Meanwhile, cabinet minister Mark Harper has repeated his party’s warning that a vote for Reform UK would give Labour “a very large majority” and a “blank cheque” in office.

As well as failing to distance himself from his predecessors – Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – Mr Sunak had made an error in vying to “outflank” Reform UK, argued Lord Mandelson.

The peer said: “He’s doing so by appeasing them, by sort of throwing red meat, to Farage, which is not outflanking him. It’s just making him bolder. It’s just making him, frankly, stronger than Sunak. And therefore the tactics, the strategy has been got wrong, in my view, by Sunak, right from the beginning.

“But I think the reason he doesn’t take on Farage is because he sees him as a stronger politician and frankly, he’s afraid to take him on.”

On Mr Farage himself, Lord Mandelson said: “I think he terrifies the Conservative Party. I mean, he terrified David Cameron into conceding a referendum on our membership of the European Union, and now he’s doing the same, to Sunak. He terrorises them.

“Now you, you’ve got to stand up to terrorists you know, in this world and including in, in British domestic politics.”

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He added: “But Farage is an effective politician. There’s no point in denying it. He has a clear message. It’s not one that I happen to agree with in any respect at all.

“I think that Farage is much better at, you know, taking people down and destroying things than he is in offering a constructive, clear alternative.

“But be that as it may, the job of the leader of the Conservative Party is to take that on and show an alternative to the right, not to appease it.”

He later clarified: “I’m not saying he’s literally a terrorist. I’m saying he’s terrorising the Conservative Party.”

Politics

25% of young children and pregnant women malnourished in Gaza, charity says, as PM vows to fly critical medical cases to UK

Published

2 hours ago

July 26, 2025

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25% of young children and pregnant women malnourished in Gaza, charity says, as PM vows to fly critical medical cases to UK

A charity has warned 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished, with Sir Keir Starmer vowing to evacuate children who need “critical medical assistance” to the UK.

MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said Israel’s “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon” has reached unprecedented levels – with patients and healthcare workers both fighting to survive.

It claimed that, at one of its clinics in Gaza City, rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have trebled over the past two weeks – and described the lack of food and water on the ground as “unconscionable”.

The charity also criticised the high number of fatalities seen at aid distribution sites, with one British surgeon accusing IDF soldiers of shooting civilians “almost like a game of target practice”.

MSF’s deputy medical coordinator in Gaza, Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, said: “Those who go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s food distributions know that they have the same chance of receiving a sack of flour as they do of leaving with a bullet in their head.”

The UN also estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food – the majority near the militarised distribution sites of the US-backed aid distribution scheme run by the GHF.

In a statement on Friday, the IDF had said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians”, and reports of incidents at aid distribution sites were “under examination”.

The GHF has also previously disputed that these deaths were connected with its organisation’s operations, with director Johnnie Moore telling Sky News: “We just want to feed Gazans. That’s the only thing that we want to do.”

Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and has accused the UN of failing to distribute it, in what the foreign ministry has labelled as “a deliberate ploy” to defame the country.

‘Humanitarian catastrophe must end’

In a video message posted on X late last night, Sir Keir Starmer condemned the scenes in Gaza as “appalling” and “unrelenting” – and said “the images of starvation and desperation are utterly horrifying”.

The prime minister added: “The denial of aid to children and babies is completely unjustifiable, just as the continued captivity of hostages is completely unjustifiable.

“Hundreds of civilians have been killed while seeking aid – children, killed, whilst collecting water. It is a humanitarian catastrophe, and it must end.”

Sir Keir confirmed that the British government is now “accelerating efforts” to evacuate children from Gaza who need critical medical assistance, so they can be brought to the UK for specialist treatment.

Israel has now said that foreign countries will be able to airdrop aid into Gaza. While the PM says the UK will now “do everything we can” to get supplies in via this route, he said this decision has come “far too late”.

Last year, the RAF dropped aid into Gaza, but humanitarian organisations warned it wasn’t enough and was potentially dangerous. In March 2024, five people were killed when an aid parachute failed and supplies fell on them.

For now, Sir Keir has rejected calls to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and recognise a Palestinian state – despite more than 220 MPs signing a cross-party letter to demand he takes this step.

The prime minister is instead demanding a ceasefire and “lasting peace” – and says he will only consider an independent state as part of a negotiated peace deal.