David Cameron blasts Nigel Farage’s ‘canine whistle’ rhetoric

Lord Cameron has blasted Nigel Farage‘s ‘dog whistle’ rhetoric and claims the Reform leader is ‘intent of destroying’ the Tory party.

The foreign secretary, in an interview with The Times, warned against supporting Mr Farage and encouraged voters to reject his ‘inflammatory language’ and ‘hopeless policy’.

He also claimed that voting for the Reform or a similar party will make it ‘more likely to deliver a Labour government’ and risks making the country ‘less safe’.

Lord Cameron said he wants to ensure the ‘Conservative Party can move forward’ and that Britain gets ‘no Reform members of parliament’.

It comes after Mr Farage last week declared he had become the ‘leader of the opposition’ after a poll found Reform had pulled ahead of the Tories.

Some Conservative MPs have urged the government to ’embrace’ Mr Farage amid fears that Labour could see a landslide victory in the General Election.

But Lord Cameron has warned against, saying Mr Farage is ‘trying to destroy the Conservative Party by standing for Reform’.

He also argued that Labour’s failure to commit to spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030 means the party could not be trusted on defence. 

‘I think voting anything other than Conservative is more likely to deliver a Labour government, and the Labour government will be less good at keeping our defences strong,’ the foreign secretary said.

‘I think only the Conservatives have got the sort of plan … to properly tackle them. And voting for anything else I think will make Britain less safe’.

He said he thinks there is ‘room for people who care about immigration’ and ‘who want to stand up for strong defence’ but said the ‘other baggage you get, which can be incredibly divisive, we don’t want that’.

‘What I want is robust policy and measured language. I think with these populists what you get is inflammatory language and hopeless policy,’ Lord Cameron added. 

Mr Farage last week said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ‘doesn’t understand our culture’.

Lord Cameron, responding to the comment, told The Times: ‘You don’t have to watch sheepdog trials to hear a dog whistle.’

He also insisted that Mr Sunak could still win the election and dismissed warnings that Labour could see a ‘super-majority’, saying that is ‘no such thing’.

‘There’s a winning post of 325 seats and that’s it,’ he said.

A YouGov survey commissioned by The Times newspaper had Mr Farage’s party at 19 per cent and the Conservatives on 18 per cent in voting intention, in a crossover moment which is the latest blow to Tory hopes of returning to government. 

Mr Sunak has maintained he will ‘fight to the last day’ and said that ‘the only poll that matters’ is election day, when asked why Tory voters seemed to be turning to Mr Farage’s Reform UK.

During a press conference at the G7 leaders’ summit in Italy yesterday, Mr Sunak said: ‘I think we’re only halfway through this campaign and the Conservative Party and me are going to fight for every single vote until the last day.

‘And you know, what you saw this week was actually an important moment in the campaign because the only poll that matters is the one on July 4.

‘What you did see this week is the two leading parties put out their manifestos for the future of our country, and there’s a very clear choice.’

He added: ‘What I would say is if that poll and all these things were replicated on election day, what that would be is handing a blank cheque to Keir Starmer to increase people’s taxes on their home, their car, their job, their pension, their house, that’s what it will do.

‘So I’m going to continue fighting very hard to make sure everyone understands the choice that’s ahead of them.’

Mr Sunak was asked if his discussions at the G7 had come too late to make a meaningful difference to migration levels in the UK that would allow him to tackle the threat of Reform.

He said: ‘I think the first thing to say is this is the first time that the G7 summit has had a dedicated discussion on migration. So the fact that the G7 has been discussing migration is itself something of note and that’s something that we have pushed for.

‘So I, together with (Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni), as you know have been talking a lot about this issue, leading on this issue is important to me and to her that the G7 discussed this and the discussion today was incredibly productive.’

He added: ‘Obviously, these things don’t happen overnight. But as I said when I got this job and made my first speech on illegal migration that where the UK lead others will follow, 18 months since then has shown that to be true.’

Without referring to the Reform Party or Mr Farage in his answer, Mr Sunak concluded that he is ‘confident’ the G7 migration policies ‘will make a difference’.

At a London press conference called to celebrate the YouGov poll, Mr Farage said: ‘We are not going to get four million votes, we’re not going to get five million votes, we’re going to get a very, very substantial number of votes.

‘I genuinely think we can get over six million votes. I don’t know where the ceiling is.’

That total would be significantly more than the 3.9 million votes his former party, Ukip, received under his leadership in 2015, when it secured 12.6 per cent of the vote.

Mr Farage claimed Reform is ‘well ahead’ of the Conservatives in several regions including the North East, the North West, the East Midlands, in the West Midlands, as well as in the so-called red wall.

‘The inflection point means that, actually, if you vote Conservative in the red wall, you will almost certainly get Labour. A Conservative vote in the red wall is now a wasted vote,’ the arch Brexiteer said.

He also said: ‘It isn’t going to be Rishi Sunak leading the opposition – I mean, he’ll probably be in California anyway.

‘The Conservatives will choose someone and they probably won’t last very long. And they can’t provide opposition because they are hopelessly split down the middle on policy …

‘I put it to you that I believe I can be that voice of opposition.’