The remarks were quickly twisted into yet another outrage cycle by the right-wing press.
The Labour conference opened with Keir Starmer branding Reform UK’s immigration plans as “racist,” warning that proposals to revoke the residency rights of long-settled migrants could “tear this country apart.”
The comments, made in the PM’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg, were about Reform’s idea to scrap Indefinite Leave to Remain.
Starmer’s pitch was clear that Labour needs to be united against their common opponent – Nigel Farage.
But the remarks were quickly twisted into yet another outrage cycle by the right-wing press.
The Daily Mail, now firmly in Nigel Farage’s camp, led the attack. Its front page framed Starmer’s remarks as an attack on ordinary voters:
“Worried about immigration? Starmer says you’re racist.”
The article accused the prime minister of insulting “millions” who care about border control, while promoting Farage’s response without scrutiny:
“The prime minister has insulted those who believe mass migration should come to an end,” Farage told the Mail.
Elsewhere in the Mail, columnist Stephen Glover claimed that Starmer could “bad-mouth Farage all he wants” but wouldn’t gain support “unless he stops the boats.”
But the Mail’s feigned outrage over accusations of racism is rich with irony. Online, users resurfaced its historical support for fascist regimes in the 1930s. Lord Rothermere, the paper’s owner at the time, publicly admired Hitler and Mussolini, publishing articles like “What Europe Owes to Mussolini,” and a statement from Hitler’s spokesman arguing that allegations of “the mishandling of Jews” were “barefaced lies.”
But perhaps more troubling still, is how supposedly impartial broadcasters are giving Farage and Reform’s ‘racist’ policies an outsized platform.
Last week, both BBC News and Sky News gave Nigel Farage an unfiltered, hour-long platform to unveil Reform’s proposals, without interruption, challenge, or fact-checking.
Farage was allowed to make sweeping claims, like saving £234 billion by cutting benefits to foreigners, without being asked to explain the numbers or define who exactly would be deported.
No other political party is afforded this treatment. The Liberal Democrats, despite holding 18 times as many seats as Reform and acting as the official third party in Parliament, haven’t received anything remotely comparable.
Campaign group Best for Britain criticised the move as a clear editorial choice:
“This is an editorial choice. No other party gets this coverage,” the group posted on X.
Cardiff University’s ‘Enhancing Impartiality’ project, found that in early 2025, Reform featured in over a quarter of BBC’s 10pm bulletins, and was the main subject in nearly 40 percent of those. The Liberal Democrats, by contrast, featured in just 17 percent.
The Lib Dems have even filed a formal complaint, accusing the BBC of abandoning its impartiality obligations in favour of sensationalism and ratings-chasing.
And yet, despite the pro-Farage media frenzy, the public mood tells a different story.
On the same day the Mail ran its inflammatory front page, a landmark ‘giga poll’, surveying 45,000 people showed that most Britons support multiculturalism, reject claims that Britain is lawless, and value living in diverse communities. They also expressed serious concern about climate change, another issue routinely belittled by Farage and the Mail.
Far from buying into the anti-migrant panic pushed by Reform and amplified by complicit press and broadcasters, the public appears far more inclusive and resistant to the politics of division.
That’s the real story. But it’s one the Mail, and too many others, prefer to ignore.
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