Zia Yusuf rejects suggestion Nigel Farage is ‘soft on Russia’ and ‘pro-Putin’

Both parties are vying to overturn Labour’s majority in the Gorton and Denton by-election.

Put to Mr Yusuf on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme that Sir Keir said on Saturday – and the Foreign Secretary had reinforced – that they thought Nigel Farage is “soft on Russia”, and a “bit pro-Putin”, Mr Yusuf said: “That’s obviously not true.

“I mean, Nigel is the only political leader in this country who has confirmed on air that he would indeed shoot down Russian aircraft if they encroach into Nato airspace.

“Not a single other political leader said that, nor has Keir Starmer.”

Mr Yusuf also said US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s statement that European leaders were “allowing mass migration to threaten the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our cultures and the future of our people” is “obviously true”, when asked if he agrees.

He added: “It’s, I’d argue, the primary reason why Reform has led 200 opinion polls in a row. It’s why the majority of this country do support, for example, the mass deportation of illegal migrants.

“So it’s not just me who thinks that, or Nigel who thinks that. I think it’s demonstrably true.

“People are seeing, and just the sheer quantum of people who came, you know.

“The Tories promised four consecutive manifestos to cut net immigration to the tens of thousands and that’s important because that meant people voted time and time and time again for less immigration.

“They left office with that number at a million a year, letting 12 million people grow, six million net.

“People have had enough of it, Trevor, and we’re now at a point where we are seeing, absolutely, we are seeing, in certain instances, the erosion of British culture. And it’s a really concerning thing.”

Mr Yusuf said it is also incorrect that Mr Farage has changed his mind on the two-child benefit cap.

Put to him that the Reform UK leader changed his mind on the two-child benefit cap and said he would keep it and use the money raised to slash the duty on beer and business rates on pubs, and also that Reform’s policy is to let children go hungry so their parents can get in an extra round, Mr Yusuf said: “So number one, that isn’t what happened. Nigel has been consistent.

“The first part of what you said was Nigel’s changed his mind. That is incorrect. Nigel never changed his mind.

“Nigel’s position has always been and still is, that he would lift the two-child benefit cap only for British families who are in work, that has always been his position and has been misrepresented.

“The second point, on the pubs policy: what we wanted to do was make sure that this was fully funded.

“So the position that we have taken with regards to that policy means that that would add back £2.9 billion per year to the public purse.

“And we are in a position now where having had almost 70,000 pubs in this country a couple of decades ago, we’re going to be down to 10,000, Trevor, by 2040 (if) we carry on the way that we are.”