It begins with B
Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former spin doctor, has revealed what he thinks is the best line of attack on Nigel Farage.
It seems fairly obvious, but the answer to stopping Farage’s rise, he says, is attacking him on Brexit.
While Keir Starmer avoids criticising Brexit, Campbell noted that during his visit to the UK last week, French president Emmanuel Macron didn’t hold back.
Macron said that record numbers of small boat crossings showed Brexit had not delivered tighter border controls, and that the British people had been “sold a lie”.
On his and Rory Stewart’s podcast, The Rest is Politics, Campbell said he could see Starmer was “a bit uncomfortable” during Macron’s speech. He joked that he was probably thinking “‘oh Emmanuel don’t go on about Brexit too much, I don’t want to talk about that’’.
However, Campbell argued it would have been powerful if Starmer had said: ‘while I’m sorting this [Brexit] out, there’s Nigel Farage out on a boat as we speak with his friends from GB News because he’s trying to exploit […] rather than address the problem.’”
Campbell laid out the attack line he would use: “This guy’s one achievement in his entire career is Brexit and it has done the country a lot of harm which we’re now trying to fix.”
He added: “But for heaven’s sake, do not give the whole country to a guy whose one big achievement has been such a disaster.”
Campbell said he thinks that line of attack is better than “‘he’s going to privatise the health service and he’s a bit of a pal of Putin”.
Campbell has faced controversy over allegations that he influenced the Iraq dossier to support US claims about weapons of mass destruction, which ultimately led to the UK’s invasion of Iraq.
However, when it comes to taking Farage apart on Brexit, Campbell has shown how it’s done.
On Question Time back in December, Farage accused Campbell of being the ‘worst loser in history’. Campbell replied: “You’re the worst winner, because you’ve never taken responsibly for what you’ve won.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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