Nigel Farage's brutal five-word takedown of Keir Starmer's brand new top team

Nigel Farage has given a damning assessment of Keir Starmer just hours after he appointed his Cabinet, which included Labour heavyweights Angela Rayner, Rachel Reeves and Wes Streeting.

In a brutal five-word slap down of the new Prime Minister, the Reform UK leader said "with a couple of exceptions", that Keir Starmer's new top team is "the most inexperienced people ever to have got into a British cabinet".

Mr Farage, who became the new MP for Clacton-on-Sea and helped four more Reform win a seat in the House of Commons, was speaking from Wyldecrest Sports Country Club in Essex where he has come to watch East Thurrock Community Football Club's first match.

Mr Farage said: "With a couple of exceptions, they are I think the most inexperienced people ever to have got into a British cabinet.

"If you actually look at their life stories, their backgrounds and bear in mind, these are people making executive decisions that fundamentally affect people's lives, I think they're going to find it very, very hard. And I say that because the country faces some really fundamental problems, I suspect this Government could be in trouble pretty quickly."

And asked for his reaction to the Prime Minister scrapping the Rwanda scheme, Mr Farage said: "Well he said he would do it, at least he's kept a promise I suppose.

"Look, Rwanda was never going to work. What Keir Starmer is proposing, which is, tackle the gangs, well, frankly, you know, the last Government were doing that for the last few years, it's not going to work. At the minute it's wild and windy, but we do have some pretty strong first hand accounts that as soon as we get a calm spell, they'll be crossing the English Channel in their thousands, and let's face it, Keir Starmer does not have a plan to deal with it."

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer’s ministers outlined their priorities at the first Labour Cabinet meeting, with Rachel Reeves highlighting “stability, investment and reform”, and Angela Rayner promising to “reset relationships with regional metro mayors”.

A Downing Street readout of the gathering said: “The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that the three pillars of economic growth are stability, investment and reform, and that the Government wants to achieve economic growth for a purpose – to raise living standards and make working people better-off.”

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said becoming a “clean energy superpower” would cut bills while Health Secretary Wes Streeting said “the policy of the government is that the NHS is currently broken and we must return to an NHS that is there when people need it, with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers, in a fairer society where everyone lives well for longer.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said delivering more neighbourhood police, tackling knife crime and launching a new border security command would be “an immediate priority”.

Deputy Prime Minister and Levelling Up Secretary Ms Rayner said “the Government would reset relationships with regional metro mayors starting with a meeting she and the Prime Minister would hold this Tuesday”, the readout says.

Ahead of the Nato summit next week, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that “forging strong relations abroad would help to support the Government’s mission delivery here at home”.