Farage is the 'fight of our lives', Labour told

Labour MPs have ramped up pressure on the Treasury by calling for an economic reset after Reform UK's surge in the local elections and warning the economy is stuck in a "doom loop".

- Jessica Elgot

The warning comes from the influential Labour Growth Group, a large caucus of mostly highly loyalist new MPs who have lobbied the government to go further on planning and energy reforms. Its chair issued a stark warning that the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, was on course to become prime minister without drastic action.

Last night the Cabinet Office minister, Pat McFadden, told Labour MPs they were in "the fight of our lives" to take on Farage, and said it would be "a battle for the very future and the heart and soul of our country".

"This is the fight of our lives, this is the generational fight in this new political era," he told a private meeting of MPs and peers.

He said Labour would take on populist nationalism head on. "A new fight is taking shape," he said.

"It's a fight between our values and a nationalist politics of the right."

In the meeting, more MPs criticised the government's strategy and called for a rethink of government cuts, including to winter fuel payments and welfare. "There was no real explicit acceptance from Pat of just how dreadful the election results last week were," one said.

"No political solutions were offered other than the prospect of using the threat of a Reform government to pressure progressive voters into voting Labour to prevent Farage becoming prime minister."