Nigel Farage is today’s Enoch Powell and his appeal down to slow economy, says minister

Business secretary Peter Kyle says appeal of far-right parties like Reform due to ‘their dogma of disruption, division and despair’

Nigel Farage is “today’s incarnation of the politics of Enoch Powell”, the business secretary, Peter Kyle, said at the Co-operative party conference.

Kyle described Reform UK as “far right”, while stressing that boosting economic growth was needed to “build an economy and a politics that people can trust to deliver for themselves, their families and their communities”.

He told the conference: “The truth is that without securing higher, sustained economic growth, reconnecting people and politics, generating trust in the potential of democracy and importance of good government becomes almost impossible.

“And the appeal of the parties of the far right – with their dogma of disruption, division and despair – it becomes, too, alluring.”