Rishi Sunak and a string of senior Conservatives have condemned Nigel Farage for claiming the west provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine, amid a growing internal Tory battle over how to deal with the Reform UK leader.
The prime minister accused Farage of playing “into Putin’s hands” after he made the claim in a BBC Panorama interview on Friday, in which he linked Nato and EU expansion to the conflict in eastern Europe. Tom Tugendhat, the security minister went further, telling the Observer: “It doesn’t matter whether you’re Jeremy Corbyn or Nigel Farage – if you parrot the Kremlin’s lies, you cannot be trusted with our national security.”
