Labour has begun an all-out assault on Nigel Farage over his views on the NHS ahead of key elections in May, as the Reform UK leader prepared to host what is billed as his party’s biggest-ever rally in Birmingham.
In a coordinated campaign before Farage spoke at a 10,000-person event in the city on Friday evening, Labour paid for nearly a dozen billboard posters around the city with messages about his talk about replacing the NHS with an insurance-based healthcare system.
That morning, the city’s Birmingham Mail newspaper was covered in a paid-for wraparound Labour advertisement carrying a quote from Farage on the same subject.
Both the lavish Reform event and the Labour response are a sign of the increased stakes as the two parties prepare to battle it out in local elections on 1 May, as well as the Runcorn and Helsby byelection, the latter prompted by the resignation of Labour MP Mike Amesbury and expected on the same day.
“We’re now very much in campaign mode after the spring statement,” a Labour source said. “Farage is a gifted political orator but soundbites will only carry you so far. It’s time for some scrutiny over what he believes and would do. Expect more of this.”
The chosen territory for now is the NHS, with Labour seeking to draw attention to Farage’s previous hints that he would prefer a different model. Quizzed about this on Friday morning, Farage told the BBC that he supported it being free at point of use, but that he would like to “re-examine the whole funding model”.
While Farage insists his preferred idea would be more like the top-up system seen in parts of continental Europe, Labour argues that he would in fact oversee a US free-for-all.
Before the rally, the party pointed to Farage’s links to a US thinktank called the Heartland Institute, which strongly argues for the American healthcare system and has criticised the NHS.
Speaking at a Heartland Institute dinner in Chicago in September last year, Farage praised its work and called for its ideas to spread to the UK. “Maybe the time has come for a bit of reverse colonialism, maybe it’s time that Heartland came and set up in Britain and Europe and brought some of the wisdom that you’ve brought to the American debate,” he told the audience.
Friday’s rally at Birmingham’s Utilita arena will be a chance for him to galvanise his supporters before a major election effort – and to try to move on from bitters rows of the past few weeks.
Rupert Lowe, elected as one of Reform’s five MPs in July, is at open war with Farage after he lost the party whip over allegations linked to bullying staff and threats to Reform’s chair, which Lowe has dismissed as a smear.
In another rebuff to Farage, Lowe announced on Friday plans to set up what he termed a “national inquiry” into child sex abuse gangs, saying this had been promised by Reform but not delivered.
While it is not clear what might be achieved by an inquiry established by a such deeply partisan figure, Lowe’s message about the plan was retweeted by Elon Musk, with a crowdfunder to support it heading rapidly towards its £100,000 target in a few hours.
While Reform have been regularly polling equal with Labour and the Conservatives nationally, the byelection and local elections will be the first sign of how well Farage has managed to bring in a coherent on-the-ground campaigning system, one of his main pledges.
Although Amesbury had a near-15,000 majority, Reform has been heavily tipped to take the seat after the MP was convicted of punching a man in the street and stepped down, and a Labour win would be a reverse for Farage.
Similarly, winning the near-25% of the vote it has polled at recently would give Reform 400-plus council seats on 1 May but recent council byelections – however limited a guide – have not gone hugely well for the party.
At a council byelection in Maldon, Essex on Thursday Reform took just 16.7% of the vote, and the Conservatives held the seat. Of four recent byelections in the county, billed as a Reform stronghold, the party won a lower vote share than Ukip did in 2013-14.
