Australia's Labor PM doesn't want to see the rise of Reform
Anthony Albanese said he had no plans to meet Nigel Farage in London
Anthony Albanese, speaking in London, said he does not want to see the rise of parties like Britain’s populist right party Reform and had no plans to meet its Nigel Farage.
Mr Albanese spent the first day of his three-trip to the United Kingdom headlining a global progressives conference in central London alongside his ‘Three Eyes’ Prime Ministerial counterparts, Keir Starmer of the UK and Mark Carney of Canada.
He spent Saturday visiting King Charles III at Balmoral as well as a church, and on Sunday will address the Labour party conference in Liverpool before flying home via Abu Dhabi.
The trio also spoke alongside Iceland’s Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir about how to combat the rise of the populist right, which is surging in support across Europe.
YouGov’s second-only MRP poll since the 2024 July election puts Mr Farage within a whisker of forming a majority government, partly due to anxieties about immigration and the flow from across the English Channel of small boats carrying migrants who claim asylum in the UK.
‘I don’t want to see the rise of populist organisations such as that,’ Mr Albanese told reporters during a press conference at Stoke Lodge, the official residence of Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK.
‘I met with the mainstream opposition party here.
‘Parties of governance have to come up with solutions, not seek to divide people.’
Asked if he had ever met Mr Farage, Mr Albanese said: ‘No.’
When I asked if he would seek a meeting with the populist leader, given Reform’s electoral viability, Mr Albanese said: ‘I have no plans to meet Mr Farage.’
Mr Albanese’s London schedule was dominated by meetings with like-minded leaders, except for one — his engagement with Ms Badenoch.
Mr Farage’s dominance in the polls is such that UK Labour and Sir Keir have begun treating the Reform leader as the true opposition leader over Ms Badenoch.
‘We’re going to face a very different election next time to any of the elections we’ve fought in the United Kingdom for a very, very long time,’ Sir Keir said.
‘That’s certainly why I want this to be out as an open fight now, between Labour and Reform.
‘The choice before the electorate here at the next election is not going to be the traditional Labour versus Conservative.
‘It’s why I’ve said the Conservative party is dead. Centre-right parties in many European countries have withered on the vine.
‘And the same is happening in this country. And it actually becomes bigger than Labour.
‘There’s a battle for the soul of this country now as to what sort of country do we want to be because that toxic divide, that decline with Reform, it’s built on a sense of grievance, grievance politics.’
Trump heralds a new era
But Sir Keir also said that countries had to accept that the populist economic policies being pursued by President Donald Trump were here to stay.
On Friday, Mr Trump threatened a 100 per cent tariff beginning October 1 on pharmaceuticals unless the company has a plant in the United States.
If imposed, it would add to the 10 per cent on tariffs on imports from Australia as well as 50 per cent on steel.
This sets up yet another point of tension in the relationship ahead of Mr Albanese’s first and long-awaited October 20 meeting in the White House.
Asked if there was anything he could learn from the approach of Sir Keir, who has forged a personal friendship with Mr Trump, compared to Mr Albanese’s one and only fleeting selfie encounter, the prime minister said: ‘I think that you just deal with these issues in a straightforward manner.’
But Sir Keir said America’s allies had to accept tariffs were ‘here to stay.’
‘You can have your view on tariffs, you may think they’re good, bad or indifferent,’ he said.
‘But the fact is they’re here. President Trump believes in them, uses them, and we have to understand that.
‘It’s a profound belief that he has about the way he wants his economy to be reshaped.’
Sir Keir said this meant being clearer at home about domestic government support for industries compared to the free market.
Mr Albanese met one-on-one with Mr Carney, Sir Keir and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who, like the Australian leader, opposes immediate increases to defence spending to meet a new NATO target of 3.5 per cent of GDP.
This is an adapted version of an article first published by The Nightly