Zia Yusuf has shut down Sir Keir Starmer’s swipe at Reform UK’s “racist” migration policy, accusing him of “smearing and belittling” the party.

Speaking to GB News, Reform’s Head of Doge hit back at the Prime Minister’s remarks, declaring the comments are “beyond belief”.

Speaking at the Labour Party conference, the Prime Minister said Reform UK’s migration policy is “racist and immoral” for wanting to remove people who are “lawfully here”.

He 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”.

Delivering his verdict on the remarks, Mr Yusuf told GB News: “The reason why it’s [Labour conference] being driven by our agenda is because Reform, because Nigel Farage, actually listen and have the finger on the pulse of the British people and the British electorate, and are coming up with practical solutions for the issues and problems that affect their lives on a day to day basis.

“And in contrast, you have a Prime Minister who has just kept up the tradition of smearing and belittling anyone who says mass untrammelled immigration to the tune of millions and millions of people that came here against the wishes of the British people are racist.”

He added: “The fact that this continues is actually almost beyond belief, but actually is very believable when you place it into context, because there was a Survation poll which showed that the majority of Labour members, the majority of the people at that Labour conference of which you speak want Keir Starmer to resign.

“Those are the people Keir Starmer is talking to when he refers to anyone who raises legitimate concerns about immigration as being racist.”

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Highlighting the scale of the cost of the migration crisis, Mr Yusuf warned that the finances will “balloon” in the next five to 10 years.

Reform’s Doge leader explained: “Let’s be clear about this. Last year alone, people watching this program had to pay £9billion last year alone in the form of taxes to pay for Universal Credit welfare payments for people who are foreign nationals.

“And that number is going to balloon over the coming five to ten years as a result of this Boris wave, the 3.8 million people who came to this country despite Boris telling everyone he was going to reduce immigration, he instead turned on the afterburners.”

Mr Yusuf continued: “There is an enormous cost to that. The cost of that is hundreds of billions of pounds. It is unconscionable, absolutely unacceptable, to expect the people watching this program to have to shell out to pay for those people to live off the state for the rest of their lives, which is what happens when you grant them indefinite leave to remain.

“So our policy is simple. We expect, and Nigel Farage, if he’s Prime Minister, he will expect migrants to pay their way, speak English, and not commit crime. The fact that Keir Starmer thinks such a policy is racist says far more about him than it does about the British people.”

Praising the work of Reform UK in cracking down on immigration, Mr Yusuf declared that “opening up our borders” is “catastrophic” for young British people.

He concluded: “The social contract between the younger generations and the older generation, Reform are the only party with a realistic shot of doing that, and this is one of the key reasons why we’ve announced this immigration policy.

“Our young people, over a third of our young adults, are still living at home with their parents. This is a catastrophic failure because young people can’t even afford to rent a home anymore, forget about buying a home. There used to be something to aspire to.

“Now, simply moving out of your parents’ home into rented accommodation is beyond the realms of achievement for so many British young people. This is a catastrophe, and simply shipping in and opening up our borders, allowing dirt-cheap foreign labour to come in and undercut those young people is simply unfair, and Reform will not tolerate it.”