Blair's ad guru attacks PM's lack of plan to tackle Farage

Sir Tony Blair's former advertising guru has warned Sir Keir Starmer does not have the “urgently needed” plan required to tackle the rise of populists such as Nigel Farage.

- KATE DEVLIN

Sir Chris Powell, the brother of the prime minister's national security adviser Jonathan Powell, called for a fundamental reset within Labour, saying there were just three years left to stop the “new and terrifying threat”.

Allowing Mr Farage’s Reform UK, which has said it plans to spend £5m fighting May’s local elections, to be seen as credible leaders in government without sufficient challenge would make the party appear less threatening, he said, while waiting and hoping for them to fail is “potentially suicidal for our freedom and democracy”.

In a double whammy for the PM, a former senior aide has also hit out at the “weirdness of how Whitehall spends its time” as he urged Sir Keir to scrap the pension triple lock and smash what he dubbed the “stakeholder state”.

Writing for The Guardian, Sir Chris said: “Where is the urgently needed counter plan on a huge scale, to thwart and head off such an existential threat? It is simply not in place, nor does it appear to be even at the planning stage.

“We are at a very dangerous moment. We simply cannot afford to allow Reform UK to have a free run, and become established and entrenched as a credible potential government in the minds of disenchanted voters.