Starmer Accuses Reform Of 'Feeding On Grievance' Amid Immigration Row

British Reform party leader Nigel Farage addresses journalists during a press conference in a hangar at Oxford Airport in Kidlington, England, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025.Keir Starmer has accused Nigel Farage of not wanting to solve the issue of asylum hotels, alleging that Reform UK “feeds on grievance”. The prime minister hit out at his right-wing rivals who have been calling for the government to go further and faster with tackling illegal immigration.Starmer has promised to stop using asylum hotels by the close of this parliament, roughly 2029, even though Labour has also struggled with an uptick in small boat crossings over the last year.However, the government found itself appealing against the court’s attempt to stop using Epping’s Bell Hotel for asylum seekers last week – an appeal that it won.However, right-wing critics have called Labour’s commitment to addressing the migrant crisis into question as a result.Amid the spike in anti-asylum protests, Reform UK has promised to deport 600,000 in five years if it were to win the next election.Farage has also warned of a “genuine threat to public order” without quick action to tackle illegal migration.Speaking to Radio 5 Live, Starmer hit out at Reform, saying: “The difference here is between an orderly, sensible way of actually fixing a problem we inherited from the Tories [and] fanciful arrangements that just not going to work.“Nigel Farage and Reform are just the politics of grievance.“They feed on grievance. They don’t want the problem solved because they’ve got no reason to exist if the problems are solved.“And so the contrast in politics is a Labour government rebuilding the country in the way that we said we would, or this politics of grievance that simply puts forward unworkable, fanciful ideas that are actually not fair to the public – to put forward, yet again, ideas that just aren’t going to work.”“These are people who talk down our country,” he added.But the prime minister said the problem needs to be addressed, and claimed Labour are already doing just that as 35,000 people have already been returned.He continued: “We have to have control of our borders, and I completely get it, and I’m determined that, whether it’s people crossing in the first place, whether it’s people in asylum hotels, or whether it’s returning people, we absolutely have to deal with this.“When it comes to the asylum hotels, I want them emptied. I’ve been really clear about that. I completely understand why people are so concerned about it.“The only way to empty them is an orderly, systematic working through of the cases as quickly as possible and then returning those people who should not be here.”A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Starmer and his government cause grievances.”Related...UK Urged To Resist Reform's 'Kneejerk Send Them Home' Plans For MigrantsRichard Tice Snaps At Trevor Phillips As Presenter Pokes Holes In Reform's Immigration PoliciesNigel Farage U-Turns On Reform UK Plan To Deport Women And Children

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