Pat McFadden, the Cabinet minister, has accused Nigel Farage of “parroting Kremlin lines” after the Reform UK leader said he would vote against any UK government plans to deploy troops to Ukraine. The comments came after Britain and France announced they were ready to send troops to Ukraine following a peace deal.
McFadden said Farage’s stance cast doubt on his commitment to the UK’s national security and should give voters “pause for thought”. “This guarantee is not just for Ukraine, it’s for the whole of Europe,” he said. “It’s in the British national interest that we do that, and that’s why it’s so concerning to me to see some politicians, like Mr Farage, for example, immediately come out [and] parrot the Kremlin line and say that he wouldn’t support this.”
Farage, who appeared on Times Radio instead of attending Prime Minister’s Questions, argued that the UK lacks the manpower and equipment for an operation with no end timeline. “It would be a very interesting vote. I would vote against,” he said. “We neither have the manpower nor the equipment to go into an operation that clearly has no ending timeline.” He added that if a larger coalition of willing countries were involved, he might support it, but as it stands, “it will be us and the French completely exposed for an unlimited period of time.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said MPs will have a debate and vote before any UK troops are deployed on peacekeeping duties. A Labour spokesperson called Farage’s comments “the behaviour of Putin’s puppet”, stating: “Nigel Farage’s equivocation on support for Ukraine is an insult to those who have fought to defend freedom.”
