“An absolutely unholy alliance of austerity and failure.”
Keir Starmer made a jibe about Tory defections to Reform and the reports of a Reform-Tory election pact at Prime Minister’s Questions today.
Starmer’s joke came in response to Tory MP George Freeman, who said he had recently been the target of an AI deepfake video announcing his defection to Reform.
The MP for Mid Norfolk said: “As colleagues will know that’s about as likely as Reform moving from pub populism to a coherent programme for government.”
Freeman said he was “delighted to reassure my chief whip that I am and always have been a faithful Conservative”.
The MP said that while satire has always been an important part of politics, he was concerned by the rise of AI deepfakes and asked the PM to work with him on making reforms to AI to “protect our democratic integrity”.
Starmer said tackling AI deepfakes is “an important issue” and added “we do need to work cross-party where we can” on deepfakes and AI.
The prime minister then joked: “I am afraid I had missed his alleged defection to Reform, I wouldn’t have believed it if I had seen it.”
He added: “But I have to say there’s a lot of them going. Three ex-MPs have gone I think this week. They talk about leaks, that’s where their leaks are going… to Reform.”
On Monday, Reform confirmed that three ex-Tory MPs, Jonathan Gullis, Lia Nici and Chris Green had joined Reform.
In a swipe at Farage, Starmer said: “I saw a leak, talking of leaks, on the front page of the Financial Times this morning, where apparently the leader of Reform says he wants to merge with the party opposite and sit here with them.”
He called a potential Tory-Reform merger “an absolutely unholy alliance of austerity and failure.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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