Labour is actively planning to face down a surging Reform UK at the next General Election, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Prime Minister, whose party is slumping in the polls by as many as 13 points behind Nigel Farage's challengers, has admitted that Labour will pivot from battling the Conservatives to Reform.
"We were planning on the basis we were likely to be facing Reform at the next election in any event," the PM said, and last week's local elections blowout "coincides with our thinking".
Starmer also told The Sun that the locals had taught Labour a lesson - but rather than attack Farage, he turned his fire on Kemi Badenoch, whose party also slumped across England on May 1.
'We were planning on the basis we were likely to be facing Reform at the next election in any event,' the PM said
PA
"I think the Tory Party is a busted flush," Starmer spat. "They haven't learnt the lessons of the last General Election. They have no idea where they are heading.
"And they have got a leader who is showing no leadership.
"But what I take out of those election results is that we need to deliver change.
"We need to make sure people feel that change in their pockets and in their everyday lives. That is what I am intent on delivering," he added.
READ MORE ON LABOUR'S BATTLE AGAINST REFORM UK:
'I think the Tory Party is a busted flush,' Starmer spat
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His words come after a week of damning polling for Labour.
Five polls in the space of just two days placed Reform UK on top, with one putting Farage's party 13 points clear of Starmer's.
Data from More In Common, YouGov, Find Out Now, Techne UK and BMG Research revealed that growing numbers of Britons would vote for Nigel Farage's party if a General Election were held tomorrow.
Boris Johnson has dismissed Farage's chances of beating out Britain's historical top two parties
GB NEWSAnd further data from YouGov last week revealed that just 17 per cent of Britons would vote Conservative - the party's lowest tally for six years - just before Boris Johnson was selected as their leader.
Johnson himself, however, went on to dismiss Farage's chances of beating out Britain's historical top two parties to form a Government.
The former Prime Minister told GB News: "I don't believe he will, no. And I think that if you look at the direction of travel of the country at the moment, the case for conservatism is really overwhelming.
"The Tories are definitely going to recover, because I think in the end the people of this country are going to be completely fed up by 2028, 2029, with high tax, high regulation, and a massively woke government that is taking us in completely the wrong direction. The goal is really wide open."
