's new MP hit out at "rattled" Sir Keir Starmer after he launched a major attack on Nigel Farage. Sarah Pochin, who was elected as the insurgent party's fifth MP in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, accused the Prime Minister of "scaremongering".

Sir Keir used a speech earlier today to claim Mr Farage would do the same as former Tory PM Liz Truss if he takes power. Ms Pochin told GB News: "I think whoever planned this press conference for Keir Starmer today made a big misjudgement. This was all about Keir Starmer promoting Nigel Farage.

"It's clear that he's utterly paranoid now about Nigel, his rhetoric, what he's saying, what Reform is saying, where we are in the polls, which is well over 10 points ahead of Labour.

"I watched his speech twice because I couldn't quite believe how many times he actually made reference to Nigel. I counted 16 times in a six-minute speech. I've never heard anything like that before.

"We've got them rattled. We know we've got them rattled. We only gave a press conference on Tuesday and look what he's felt the need to do today; do nothing but actually make himself look incompetent, make himself look like he hasn't got the answers, and very much promote Reform and show the public that we do have the answers.

"Nigel is over [in Las Vegas] launching a Bitcoin initiative. Nigel works incredibly hard. If only there were more of him. He needs to be everywhere.

"But the point is I'm here, and he's got a top team, and I'm delighted to be talking to you today about these issues."

Sir Keir's attack comes after Mr Farage earlier this week announced that Reform would restore winter fuel payments to all pensioners and scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Ms Pochin added: "Keir Starmer attacks Nigel on every level, but nothing stands. He's got no defence when it comes to our policies, our figures, which are costed.

"Already Keir Starmer has been in power for 10 months and he's U-turning left, right and centre. He's U-turning on the winter fuel allowance. He's going to U-turn on his disability benefit reforms.

"He talked about Liz Truss. He's scaremongering. We have said very clearly, and Nigel said on Tuesday very, very clearly, that by scrapping the net zero projects over the next five years, we will say save £225 billion.

"By scrapping the DEI woke nonsense projects across the civil service, across businesses, we will save £35 billion.

"We know that by returning illegal immigrants to the country that they came from, we will save £20 billion over the next five years. So in total per year, we can save £78 billion by some of these projects: slashing the foreign aid budget, apart from projects that we really need to do.

"These are huge sums of money which Labour is wasting, and it's taxpayers money that they are wasting. They could, at the stroke of a pen, change their policies and put money into the pocket of the working man."

Speaking during a visit to a glass factory in the North West, the PM insisted that he wanted to "protect" working people from what Reform would do.

He said of Mr Farage: "Can you trust him? Can you trust him with your future? Can you trust him with your jobs? Can you trust him with your mortgages, your pensions, your bills? And he gave the answer on Tuesday. A resounding no."

It comes as Reform is riding high in national opinion polls following its victories in the local elections.