‘Was it a debate or a catfight?’: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage risks sexism row as he swipes at Tories’ Penny Mordaunt and Labour’s Angela Rayner after ill-tempered BBC election event

Nigel Farage risked a sexism row today when he suggested last week’s TV debate about the Tories‘ Penny Mordaunt and that of Labour Angela Rayner was a ‘cat fight’.

The leader of Reform UK was one of seven senior politicians who took part on Friday evening general election event on the BBC.

The programme, which attracted an audience of 3.2 million viewers, featured heated discussions between Ms Mordaunt and Ms Rayner about taxes, the NHS and net zero.

During the ill-tempered debate, Mrs Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, repeated the Tory claim that Labor would increase taxes by £2,000 per household.

But Ms Rayner, the Labor deputy leader, shot back: “That’s a lie.”

Speaking at a reform press conference this afternoon, Farage lashed out at senior Conservative and Labor politicians.

‘Was it a debate or a cat fight? I’m not entirely sure,” he said, referring to the “amazing” exchanges on taxes.

Nigel Farage today risked a row over sexism when he suggested last week’s TV debate over the Tories, Penny Mordaunt and Labour’s Angela Rayner, was a ‘catfight’

The BBC programme, which attracted 3.2 million viewers, featured heated discussions between Ms Mordaunt and Ms Rayner about tax, the NHS and Net Zero

During the bad-tempered debate, Mrs Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, repeated the Tory claim that Labor would increase taxes by £2,000 per household.

Farage despaired that neither Friday night’s debate – nor an earlier confrontation between Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – included a discussion about debt.

“What was not discussed in either debate was debt,” the reform leader said.

‘Debts were not mentioned at all. So let’s remind ourselves what happened.

‘When the Conservatives came to power, the amount of our accumulated national debt was around £1 trillion. It is now just over £2.7 trillion.

‘That means that for every man, woman and child in this country, the amount of debt per capita has risen from £23,000 per person to £38,000 per person.’

Mr Farage said Britain now spends as much on interest on debt as it does on education, adding: ‘We have to face one or two realities: we are stretched thin and it is getting worse.

“And at some point we may even have problems with the issuance of government bonds and government bonds.”

The reform leader later continued his attack on Sunak for skipping a D-Day event last week.

Farage has been condemned for claiming the incident showed the British-Asian prime minister does not care about “our history” and “our culture”.

Shabana Mahmood, Labour’s shadow justice secretary, branded the comments as “dog-whistle” politics, while Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said they made him “very uncomfortable”.

Asked for his response to Mr Farage’s comments during a meeting with journalists at a garden center in Horsham this morning, Mr Sunak said: ‘You can ask him, I can’t speak for him and what he meant by those comments.

“I’m not going to get involved in that because I don’t think it’s good for our politics or even for our country.”