Starmer has 'given licence to people like Antifa to arm and come after Reform', says Richard Tice
Nigel Farage said Sir Keir's branding of Reform UK immigration plans as racist “will incite and encourage the radical left”
Richard Tice has accused Sir Keir Starmer of inciting violence and "inviting Antifa to take up arms and come after Nigel Farage" and Reform.
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The Reform Deputy leader's comments come after Mr Farage said attacks on his plans to deport people who live in Britain legally "will incite and encourage the radical left" and "directly threatens the safety" of his party's campaigners.
Speaking to LBC's Tom Swarbrick at Drive, Mr Tice accused the Prime Minister of going "down the gutter of British politics".
"He's essentially given licence to people like Antifa to arm and come after Reform people, and it's a disgrace," he said.
Mr Tice rejected that the Prime Minister's comments are simply a disagreement about policy.
Read more: Starmer denies being 'obsessed' with Nigel Farage as he lays into Reform's 'politics of chaos'
He repeated: "This is inviting Antifa to take up arms and come after Nigel Farage. That's literally the clear implication of what the Prime Minister said yesterday."
Labour’s conference was dominated by attacks on Reform, with Sir Keir claiming Mr Farage “doesn’t like Britain”.
Sir Keir used his party conference address in Liverpool to address the concerns of voters who had drifted to Reform – with economic growth a key “antidote to division”.
Mr Tice also criticised Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy for his claims that Mr Farage flirted with Hitler Youth, which he has since backtracked on.
"They're in such desperate straits, whether they lash out on this, whether they lash out on ludicrous statements about the Dublin Convention that patently didn't work," Mr Tice said.
"Well, there's nothing patriotic about standing up for foreign citizens over and above standing up for British citizens.
"The role of a British government is to improve the lives and prospects and public services, primarily for British citizens. That's literally what they should be focused on and they're not. They're doing the opposite."
The comments come amid reports Mr Farage has had his taxpayer-funded security detail slashed by three-quarters.
Since Mr Farage was told at the start of September that his round-the-clock government-funded protection would be slashed, Reform UK donors have stepped in to cover the drop in protection, which is understood to cost more than £1 million per year.
All of the Clacton MP’s security is now privately funded, after his team ruled that using both private and public providers would be unworkable, the Telegraph reported.
Mr Tice told LBC: "I have previously been in touch with the speaker, confirming my anxiety about security and regrettably, at events, we have to have additional security because of this, and that's before this additional incitement.
"And all of this will happen to be looked at at a time when the Home Office have withdrawn some 75% of Nigel's security just a couple of weeks ahead of this coordinated assault on Nigel.
"I mean, the whole thing is just so shocking. It's actually quite hard to process it."
