Chris Philp has torn into Sir Keir Starmer’s “disgraceful smear” after branding Reform UK’s latest migration policy “racist” and “immoral”.

Speaking to GB News, the Shadow Home Secretary declared the Prime Minister is “not serious” about border control and his remarks about Reform were “completely wrong”.

Speaking at the Labour Party conference, Sir Keir labelled Reform’s migration policy as “racist and immoral” for wanting to remove people who are “lawfully here”.

The Prime Minister agreed that he believes illegal migrants should be removed, but claimed illegal deportations are a “completely different thing,” adding, “to reach into people who are lawfully here and start removing them”.

Discussing the Prime Minister’s remarks, Mr Philp told GB News: “I certainly wouldn’t call it racist, there is nothing racist at all about wanting to control our borders.

“And it says a lot about Keir Starmer that he dismisses border control plans in that way. He was completely wrong, completely wrong to use that word.”

Highlighting Labour’s own “weak approach” to tackling Britain’s migrant crisis, Mr Philp stated: “And of course, Labour’s own approach to border control is extremely weak.

“Just on Saturday, a couple of days ago, they let in another 895 illegal immigrants across the English Channel, nearly 1,000 in just a single day.”

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Comparing Labour’s efforts to Conservative policy, the Shadow Home Secretary pointed out that the Government’s latest measures are something the Tories proposed “months ago”.

He explained: “And what Labour are announcing today is something which we Conservatives proposed in Parliament a few months ago, and Labour voted against it.

“And here they are now saying that there needs to be some conditions before people get indefinite leave to remain, the right to stay permanently.”

Stressing that their policy “goes nowhere near far enough”, Mr Philp told GB News: “Not only should we do that and say people ought to be earning decent amounts of money and making a contribution and not claiming benefits before they get the permanent right to stay, not only that, which Labour voted against a few months ago, we should be increasing the salary thresholds, for example, before people can bring family members into the country.

“And we should also be getting rid of the Human Rights Act for immigration matters so we can deport everybody, not some people, but everybody who arrives here illegally by small boat, by dinghy over the Channel.”

Detailing Conservative measures to tackle illegal immigration, Mr Philp concluded that “every illegal migrant and foreign criminal” should be deported.

He said: “We should deport every single foreign criminal as well, but those measures that we Conservatives have developed in detail, Labour has been voting against throughout this year, which tells you what they really think about border control.

“They’re not serious about border control. The Labour Party and what Starmer said at the weekend was, firstly a disgraceful smear, but it also shows you that this Labour Party is not serious about border control.”