By David Wilcock,Editor

Copyright dailymail

Nigel Farage’s taxpayer-funded security detail was ‘decimated’ just weeks before he was ‘demonised’ by the Prime Minister in a row over anti-immigration policies, Reform claimed today.

Policy chief Zia Yusuf accused Labour of ‘incitement to violence’ and alleged that the number of guards protecting Mr Farage had been cut by 75 per cent by the Parliamentary Security Department.

In an interview today he said that party donors had been forced to step in and had ‘shored up his security’ by paying for private guards.

Mr Farage used a live speech yesterday to suggest that attacks by Sir Keir Starmer and other senior ministers had put him and other members of the party at risk of violent reprisals.

Mr Yusuf told Times Radio: ‘Two weeks ago, the authorities cut Nigel’s security detail by 75 per cent, and then we have seen the most extraordinary 48 hours of demonisation, and I’m going to say it again, incitement to violence against the man who is the bookmakers’ favourite to be the next prime minister.’

He lashed out at ministers including Deputy PM David Lammy, who yesterday made a grovelling apology for saying Farage had ‘flirted with the Hitler Youth’ when he was at school.

Speaking to GB News he added: ‘When was the last time you saw such a coordinated campaign, and that coming a matter of weeks after his security detail was decimated by the authorities?’

Reform declined to clarify how many guards had been stripped from Mr Farage’s detail.

He has been regularly seen with the same group of bodyguards since before the election.

A spokesperson for the House of Commons said: ‘Any assessment of an individual MP’s security arrangements or advice is subject to a rigorous risk-based assessment, conducted by security professionals and with input from a range of professional authorities.

‘Whilst these are naturally kept under continuous review, we do not comment on specific details so as not to compromise the safety of MPs, parliamentary staff or members of the public.’

Cabinet minister Pat McFadden defended Labour’s attacks on Reform, saying ‘politics is a fight’ and that scrutiny of ‘un-British’ policies such as the scrapping of indefinite leave to remain ‘will go with the territory of having a prominent position in the polls, and they’d better get used to it’.

This morning Sir Keir opened another front in his war on Reform by blaming Brexit for the Channel migrant crisis – saying the UK is being assailed by ‘Farage boats’.

The PM made the claim about the impact of cutting ties with the EU as he scrambled to claw back Nigel Farage’s huge poll lead.

But he also went into retreat after brutal barbs in his Labour conference speech, stressing the Reform leader is not a racist.

The PM described Mr Farage as ‘formidable’ as he denied that the swipes put safety at risk.

With Labour facing meltdown in the polls, Sir Keir levelled a series of highly personal jibes at his rival – who responded by warning that the personal safety of Reform politicians had been put at risk.

Deputy PM David Lammy went even further by making an outlandish slur about Mr Farage having ‘flirted with the Hitler Youth’, a suggestion he was quickly forced to withdraw. The concerns raised by Reform were dismissed by Labour MPs as ‘snowflake’.

Sir Keir signalled the aggressive new tactics on Sunday when he described Reform’s policy of scrapping ‘indefinite leave to remain’ immigration status as ‘racist’.