September 24, 2024 - 2:45pm
Liverpool
Labour frontbencher Pat McFadden has accused Reform leader Nigel Farage of “parroting Kremlin propaganda”. Speaking at Labour Party conference, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster told a Labour Together fringe event that “we need to take the fight to this force”, before criticising Farage’s political stances.
The veteran New Labour strategist was asked about what might be the first by-election of the new parliament in outgoing Tory leader Rishi Sunak’s seat. “The former prime minister said he will serve a full parliamentary term but we’ll see,” McFadden said. Reform came third in Richmond and Northallerton at the last election, only 3,000 votes behind Labour in second, as Sunak held the seat with a comfortable majority of 13,000. But should the Conservatives continue to haemorrhage votes to Reform, Labour may be competing explicitly with Farage’s party.
McFadden said Labour must “point out that the leader of that party has parroted Kremlin propaganda over the Ukraine war when they’re engaged in a really tough fight for survival”. The Cabinet member also criticised Farage for his desire to “undermine the model of the NHS” and called the Reform leader’s response to the summer riots a “totally irresponsible” effort to “make excuses for criminality”.
One half of the duo that masterminded Labour’s election victory — along with Keir Starmer’s head of strategy Morgan McSweeney — McFadden’s condemnation of the Clacton MP was similar to Boris Johnson’s. The former prime minister, who has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine, accused Farage online of spreading “morally repugnant” and “ahistorical drivel”.
Farage previously said to the BBC: “[W]hat I have been saying for the past 10 years is that the West has played into Putin’s hands, giving him the excuse to do what he wanted to do anyway.”
In the same Panorama appearance, he added: “Back in 2014, when the EU first offered Ukraine an accession agreement, I said in a speech in the European Parliament that ‘there will be a war in Ukraine’. Why? Because the expansion of Nato and the European Union was giving Putin a pretext he would not ignore.” The Reform leader also stressed: “I am not and never have been an apologist or supporter of Putin. His invasion of Ukraine was immoral, outrageous and indefensible.” Johnson responded that Ukraine was entitled to seek Nato and EU membership and that “nobody provoked Putin.”
During the conversation today with the Guardian’s Pippa Crerar, McFadden said that a political party must pass two key tests to gain the electorate’s trust. First, a party must be trusted with the public purse. Second, it has to be serious about national security. “We had an everywhere message,” he said, referring to Labour once again becoming the largest party in England, Scotland and Wales.
But on the insurgent political forces that were revealed during the election, McFadden said: “We will have to take the argument to our opponents on the Right and stand up strong.” He added: “We are a strong, Left-of-centre government. If that fight’s coming, I’ll be a full participant in it.”
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SubscribeMcFadden is right about there being an ‘Everywhere Message ‘ – but it’s the one that ensures the message about Britains foreign policy is enforced Everywhere. The fact that the Russians may have felt provoked into invading Ukraine should not be controversial – there’s been 4 decades of diplomats, politicians, journalists, academics and other public figures – from the West and Russian liberals and hard-liners alike – saying that the expansion of NATO into Ukraine was a red-line for Moscow. This is not to say that the invasion was justified, but the uber-flap that greeted Farrage’s reasonable observations is just more proof that our Establishment and it’s media is as infantile as it is stitched-up.
I know that it is impossible to convince local “experts” like you that the West is not at all to blame for Russia’s attack on Ukraine. You are completely indistinguishable here from fighters for the rights of all the “offended”, but nevertheless I will allow myself to remind you.
Transnistria was created by Russia in Moldova. Two wars were organized in Chechnya. South Ossetia and Abkhazia were annexed by Russia in Georgia. The Karabakh conflict was maintained by Russia in a warm state until recent years. The West gave Ukraine a week to live and thoughtfully offered Zelensky a plane.
Where was the West’s “fault” here? But you stubbornly continue to carry this gray mare’s nonsense about NATO.
If you’re afraid, just say so. Admit it honestly. It’s acceptable. No, West was wrong!
These frickin clowns don’t get it. Farage exists only because people have lost trust in traditional political parties. Not sure if it’s willfull ignorance, or people like McFadden are just stupid.
The man’s a genius compared to most of the Labour frontbenchers. And yet ignorance and stupidity still can’t entirely be ruled out.
So according to that clown, because Farage forecast Putins invasion of Ukraine, he caused and encouraged it? So it must be Orwell’s fault, too?
No that’s not what he’s saying. Farage is attempting to undermine western resolve by pedalling a false interpretation of what happened. Proper voice-box for Putin.
I never said I agreed with any of that. Nor with anything Pat McFadden said.
Farage’s position seems consistent to me and I’ve said so before. I don’t think he “forecast” the Ukraine invasion. He rightly pointed out that some Western policies over a long period were creating regional instabilities and making something like this more likely. I agreed with that assessment more than 10 years ago and still do. None of that means that I support or condone Russia’s invasion – most emphatically not !
It’s not Western engagement/involvement in Ukraine I object to per se. It’s the sort of incompetent Western involvement of rank amateurs like the EU’s Cathy Ashton who are totally out of their depth.
Strange that. Labour won power and Farage has handful of seats. Who’s the genius?
Forgive me, but where did I mention Farage ? You seemed to be obsessed with the man.
‘the man’s a genius’. You wrote it PB.
And you failed to read the rest of the sentence.
That was clearly Pat McFadden (from the context).
Of course, none of them are really geniuses.
Neither labour or reform are geniuses. Those are the sort of skewed outcomes with respect to votes cast and seats won that happen quite frequently under a first pass the post electoral system.
There, that is an explanation, not an excuse; can you spot the difference?
“point out that the leader of that party has parroted Kremlin propaganda over the Ukraine war when they’re engaged in a really tough fight for survival”
There was a time when the left wing had an anti war movement of its own.
That does involve discussion of the other sides concerns and reasons for war in the first place. In a functioning democracy that isn’t run by headless chickens, such discussions should be welcome, not painted as kremlin propaganda.
McFadden has spent his entire political “career” espousing anti-war sentiments, in typical lefty fashion. If Farage is even half-awake, he’ll have him for breakfast over this, but of course the MSM won’t report it.
Hypocrisy is seemingly no longer an issue.
‘If Farage is even half-awake, he’ll have him for breakfast over this, but of course the MSM won’t report it.’
I hope he does. I notice it is OK to discuss both sides of the Israel/ Gaza conflict. Which is a good thing, hopefully parliament is becoming more open minded.
Judging by this feedback and Cooper today the Labour party are very nervous about Reform and Farage
They would be foolish not to be. Just 20% of the electorate voted for them, and in 89 of the seats that labour won reform came second. The labour win was broad but at the same time quite shallow, like a puddle, and we know what happens to those when things start to get hot.
V aware of how many feel about immigration and the need to actually tackle the issue properly after years of slogans, rage amplification and then abject failure to do anything v practical.
But Labour won’t be worrying too much about Reform. Reform help splitting the Right just gave it a massive majority. Reform’s policy offering gets more scrutiny and it’ll unravel too. And if it drags the Tories to the Right and down a cul-de-sac, so much the better. They can’t win from there.
Of course, Farage is right. Putin was handed an excuse. Had the West been talking about NATO expansion from a position of strength Putin would have backed off, but the West is wetter than a fish’s wet bits.
No, he’s actually completely wrong.
Not got a great track record has our Nige. Brexit will be brilliant, and then doh, he said it himself ‘it’s been a disaster’. Be careful how discerning you are about his grifting.
I love the way that lefty’s, and I would include you in that group, always try and take a few words out of context to try and duplicitously support a specious argument.
What Farage actually said was “I don’t believe that Brexit itself is a failure, I believe that the implementation has been a huge failure.”
Clearer now?
No. As the Bolshevik said ‘nothing wrong with Communism, just the way they did it my friend’. Same sunk cost fallacy psychology.
So why didn’t the Europeans let us keep the benefits of the single market and custom union? Where was the free trade deal with the US? Farage promised both. Pie in the sky wasn’t it. Where was the extra investment in the NHS? Why did the pound fall and stay low since costing us all, and yet not aiding our exports because we’d shackled them with more red tape?
One could go on, but daresay you’ve had enough. He played you and you’re still in denial. Sunk cost as I say
McFadden channelling his inner Hilary??? Sense of deja vu ……
Hypocrisy, the only thing Labour have ever been good at.
McFadden not saying anything most of the sensible Right haven’t said too. To quote Ben Wallace, Farage ‘…is a bit like that pub bore we’ve all met at the end of the bar’ and often presents ‘very simplistic answers’ to complex problems. That he had been ‘consistently wrong…Putin isn’t really invading Ukraine because of Nato expansion’. Wallace noted that a 7,000-word Putin essay written before the invasion began outlining his rationale for starting the war – only mentions Nato in a single paragraph. Anyone who could stomach watching Tucker Carlson’s fawning Putin interview got chapter and verse on his Russia imperialist perspective.
Farage takes his supporters repeatedly for idiots. Simple slogans and no substance. At some point those attracted to him got to ask ‘is he playing us for fools?’
For simple slogans and no substance, I recommend the Labour Party election manifesto and the constant repetition of ‘we never knew it was this bad and there’s a £22billion black hole’. Pure propaganda. Also, consider the ambition: growth and more growth. And the policies: screw landlords, keep energy prices high, penalise entrepreneurs, have us decide on industrial strategy and priorities. The business secretary has never been near a business. Neither he nor any of his colleagues understand how wealth creation works. The last Tory Government was of course a total shambles. They lost the election. Labour didn’t win it. I want them to succeed, but I’m not confident.