Reform UK leader hits back in racism row over two-child benefit cap
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: X)
Nigel Farage has hit back at Rachel Reeves in a row over the axing of the two-child benefit cap. The Chancellor accused the Reform UK leader of racism after he said the move would “benefit huge numbers of foreign-born people”.
She said Mr Farage would keep children in poverty based on their skin colour, prompting counter-accusation of racism by Reform who claimed she was conflating nationality with skin colour. In a video on X today, the Clacton MP slammed Ms Reeves for “racial slurs against us” and warned that all Labour does it “throw abuse and never tell you the truth”.
Mr Farage said: “Next week we’re going to vote in Parliament on the two-child benefit cap being removed, being given out to an unlimited number of children.
“Rachel Reeves, you know the one, our Chancellor, the one that lied about her CV, and is utterly useless and leaving the economy over a cliff, chooses to use racial slurs against us. But here are the facts, 50% of those who will get a lot more money every year for an unlimited number of children are with overseas parents.
“Now maybe you think that’s fair and reasonable, maybe you don’t, but with us you get the facts and you get them straight. And frankly I think this is going to cost an absolute fortune to the British economy and we must stand up and fight back. All this Government can do is throw abuse and never tell you the truth.”
The slanging match erupted when Ms Reeves accused Mr Farage of racism in an interview with the Guardian.
The Chancellor said: “I don’t really care what colour a kid’s skin is. Some deserve to be in poverty and some don’t? That makes me pretty angry. Does Nigel Farage want to go around and say, ‘white – yeah, you can have the money, black – no, I’m sorry, it’s not for you’? What sort of country does he think we are?
“If you’re the mum next door who works in the NHS, has lived here all her life, her kids lived here all their life, but she was born somewhere else – we’re saying that that family deserves to grow up in poverty, whereas the one next door doesn’t? That’s not the sort of country I believe in.”
But Reform’s head of policy Zia Yusuf accused Ms Reeves of “equating Britishness with race” and called on Sir Keir Starmer to sack her.
He wrote on X: “Rachel Reeves’ comments to the Guardian equating Britishness with race are beyond the pale and overtly racist. Keir Starmer must sack her.”
A Labour source said: “Nonsense. The truth is that Nigel Farage wants to plunge hundreds of thousands of children into poverty. More division and decline peddled by Reform.”
