'You don't ignore Farage!' Starmer sent warning over 'fake election campaign' with Reform poised for surge

Macdonald, who was Director of Public Prosecutions from 2003 to 2008, said: "Look at the campaign. I mean, it was a fake campaign in many ways. Where were the rallies? Where were the where were the genuine interactions?"

Macdonald praised Farage, who had rubble and milkshake thrown at him during the campaign as he sought to engage with members of the public on the election trail.

He said that only Farage had tried to engage directly with voters compared to the other leaders who often appeared in a yellow tabard and a hard hat on a building site or at a factory.

Speaking to Chopper's Political Podcast, he said: "I'm talking about the LibDems, the Tories and Labour. Ed Davey fell off a few surfboards. Keir and Rishi - I mean their rallies were all staged, all those people waving flags behind them.

"I think there's a real danger here that, people feel the political class is divorced from them. The political class sometimes behaves as though it wants to be divorced from the public, and that clearly gives Farage an opportunity."

"I think it's very stark. I think more importantly, people notice it. I don't think people are fooled by it. He understands the security risks, but I wish we could find a way to increase contact between political leaders and the public that's consistent with their safety."

Macdonald - who was DPP in the years before Sir Keir Starmer - added: "I haven't met Nigel Farage. I'd be perfectly happy to meet him. I mean, he's clearly a man with enormous political talents. I don't agree with his position on virtually anything.

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"But one has to admire his political skill, and he's certainly got a future. I don't think he's in this for the next year or two, and you might get bored, but I think he seriously thinks that he's got a chance to supplant the Conservatives as the party of the right.

"Ministers are set to start to release thousands of prisoners in September to ease overcrowding in cells which was not dealt with by the Tory Government.

Macdonald said he suspects that the appointment of Prisons minister James Timpson - who has said that only a third of criminals should definitely be in jail - signified major reform in the future under the Labour government.

He said that Starmer practised "careful step by step thinking ahead", adding: "In my opinion, there is no way that Keir Starmer would have appointed James Timpson to that role unless he wanted to make progress and quite radical progress in the field of penal policy.

"The worst possible thing for the government would be if James Timpson in three months resigns because he says nothing's happening.

"It might happen here, but if Keir is appointing him because of what James Timpson represents, which I believe to be the case, that would suggest that Keir is going to be a lot more radical in this area than perhaps the Labour Party suggested during the election. That's interesting in itself."

Macdonald added: "I think what he's thinking is we need to make some progress to reduce the population and to stop putting people in prison who are a nuisance rather than dangerous. Big downside risks for him.

"What if some of these people come out and do something terrible? You know, the Mail and other papers will be all over him. It could be an early crisis. He's got no choice, actually.

"And he's got some cover because he can say, look, I had no choice the Tories dumped this on me. But it's still a risky policy. I think it's the right policy, but it carries political risk."