Nigel Farage has been accused of “parroting Kremlin lines” after stating he would vote against any UK government plan to deploy troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force. The Reform UK leader made the comments following a summit where Britain and France signalled readiness to send troops after a peace deal.
Cabinet minister Pat McFadden said Farage’s stance cast doubt on his commitment to national security, adding that it should give voters “pause for thought”. “This guarantee is not just for Ukraine, it’s for the whole of Europe,” McFadden said. “It’s in the British national interest that we do that, and that’s why it’s so concerning to see some politicians, like Mr Farage, immediately come out and parrot the Kremlin line.”
Farage, one of five Reform MPs, said on Times Radio that the UK lacked the manpower and equipment for an operation with “no ending timeline”. He added that if a coalition of eight to a dozen countries rotated battalions, he might support it, but as it stood, “it will be us and the French completely exposed for an unlimited period of time”.
His remarks came after a summit of the “coalition of the willing” in Paris, where Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron signed a declaration with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Starmer later told MPs there would be a Commons debate and vote before any deployment.
A Labour spokesperson accused Farage of behaving like “Putin’s puppet”, saying: “Nigel Farage’s equivocation on support for Ukraine is an insult to those who have fought to defend freedom. When Farage shrugs at support for Ukraine, people are entitled to ask who he is really speaking for.”
