Andrew Neil brutally tears apart Keir Starmer over Nigel Farage speech

issued a scathing verdict on Sir 's speech attacking . The Prime Minister used a visit to a glass factory in the North West earlier today to hit out at the Reform UK leader.

But veteran broadcaster Mr Neil branded the move as a "cock up" as he suggested it had backfired due to the questions from the media "roundly bashing him". In a post on X, Mr Neil said: "Starmer is clearly surrounded by numpties in Downing Street.

"He goes to a factory in the North West of England with the sole purpose of dissing Farage. Why?

"And what have the workers done to deserve this? It's surely a misuse of a prime ministerial visit.

"Starmer hasn't been in power for a year and he has a massive majority. Yet here he is bashing the leader of a party with five MPs as if another election was next week. Has he nothing better to do? Does Farage now live rent free inside his head?

"And for his pains the media travelling with him, on the left and right, are roundly bashing him. It's actually rather brutal.

"What a cock up. Starmer needs a whole new strategy and comms team. Or Reform will be over 35% in the polls come the party conference season - and the Labour conference will be overrun by headless chickens."

Sir Keir's speech comes as Reform UK is riding high in national opinion polls following its victories in the local elections earlier this month.

It also comes after Mr Farage pledged to restore winter fuel payments for all pensioners and axe the two-child benefit cap in a bid to appeal to Labour's traditional working class voters.

But Sir Keir claimed today that Mr Farage's plans to spend "billions upon billions upon billions, tens of billions of pounds, in an unfunded way" was an "exact repeat of what Liz Truss did".

He added: "Can you trust him? Can you trust him with your future? Can you trust him with your jobs? Can you trust him with your mortgages, your pensions, your bills? And he gave the answer on Tuesday. A resounding no."