Keir Starmer slapped down Nigel Farage in PMQs on Wednesday by joking about how much time the Reform MP has spent in the US recently.
Farage was elected to be Clacton’s MP at the general election but, over the last four months, he has somehow found time to make three trips to the States to support his friend Donald Trump.
So the prime minister took the chance to ridicule the anti-immigration Reform party leader for rarely being in the UK at PMQs.
Farage began his question to Starmer by recalling the reports that a man in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards may have plotted to kill Trump during his election campaign.
“Has the time not come prime minister to proscribe what is so obviously a terrorist organisation?” Farage said.
“And in doing so, not just do the right thing, but maybe mend some fences between this government and the incoming presidency of Donald Trump’s, given that the whole of his cabinet have been so rude about him over the last few years.”
At least 10 people in Labour’s cabinet, including the PM himself, have publicly slammed the new president-elect over the years.
But Starmer brushed over that last jibe, and instead hit back: “I’m glad to see the honourable member back here in Britain.”
While Farage waved at the House, Starmer continued: “He’s spent so much time in America recently, I’d half expected to see him on the immigration statistics.”
That triggered a wave of laughter across the House, including from Farage himself.
It was an especially poignant dig considering immigration is an issue the Reform leader has long campaigned against.
In June he even suggested there should be a complete freeze on “non-essential” immigration.
Starmer added that he had congratulated the incoming president last week.
He continued: “The point he made on Iran is a very serious point, we will work across the House and with our allies on it – obviously on the question of proscription, we keep them under review.”
Farage initially said he was not going to run for parliament earlier this year so that he could support Trump’s re-election campaign in the States.
However he had a sudden change of heart, and – having run for parliament unsuccessfully seven times over the decades – he was finally successful in July’s general election.