Labour to attack Farage for 'spewing Putin propaganda'

Labour is gearing up to increase its attacks on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK over his party’s stance on Russia, as fresh polling makes clear that the public is strongly pro-Ukraine.

- MILLIE COOKE

There is growing animosity between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky over the White House’s attempts to negotiate a peace deal with Vladimir Putin. And as Reform rises in the polls, both Labour and the Tories have been grappling with how to tackle the threat posed by the party.

It is now understood that Labour is preparing to use Mr Farage’s previous comments about Russia against him as tensions over Ukraine grow. In 2014, asked by GQ magazine which world leader he admired, Mr Farage said: “As an operator, but not as a human being, I would say Putin.”

Last year, he told BBC Newsnight the EU and Nato provoked Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine by expanding eastwards and, more recently, the long-term Trump ally failed to condemn the US president after he labelled Mr Zelensky a dictator and called for elections in Ukraine last month.