Unions are the frontline for Labour’s battle against Reform

Farage is parroting Labour talking points and courting the red wall. Keir Starmer must get ready to play his trump card.

Nigel Farage Pic: House of Commons/Flickr

Unions are alive to the threat of the populist right. They know what’s coming: a string of local elections which will see Reform UK make inroads into the red wall heartlands, stirring up old resentments and offering quick, populist fixes. And here’s the challenge: Labour’s hold on union members may be slipping.

For years, it’s been easy to assume that unionised workers – factory workers, engineers, care workers, drivers – are Labour's base. But that base is fragmenting. As Reform captures working-class voters, the party is also targeting and building support among trade union members.

Nigel Farage’s party, unlike Labour, has been unafraid to talk about nationalisation – of steel, water, and core industries that still hold symbolic and material importance for many workers. On Tuesday, Farage and his deputy Richard Tice visited British Steel, claiming there were “three days to save” the industry, and the way to do that was to take it “into public ownership.”

Labour – the ideological home of such ideas – has prioritised appearing fiscally credible, careful not to frighten the markets, and reluctant to commit to anything that smells too radical. While it has committed to rail renationalisation and Great British Energy, its stance on water nationalisation has been tepid and out of step with public opinion.

Here, the government has been somewhat naive. They assumed Reform would have trouble nibbling away at its base. And while it is true that middle-class Liberals continue to look at the party aghast, Labour’s working-class roots are more amenable. Yes, Reform is headed up by an unabashed Thatcherite who wants lower taxes, a French-style health insurance system, and a bonfire of red tape. But its rhetoric increasingly sounds like it’s been lifted from the left.

This should come as no surprise. Across Europe, we’re seeing the same pattern – and the same sorts of voters being lured away. Right-wing populist parties combine cultural conservatism with welfare chauvinism: handouts for “hard-working natives” and hostility to outsiders. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has promised tax breaks for families and subsidised energy prices; France’s Marine Le Pen has campaigned on promises to protect pensions and lower the retirement age.

Reform is following suit: talking up protection for British workers, tougher stances on outsourcing, and a more aggressive approach to reindustrialisation. These messages cut through in former Labour towns where trade unionism still has a presence, but where members’ politics are often more instinctively Reform than Fabian.

So what of the unions? Trade unions insist their work is at the heart of fighting the far-right and believe that tangible, well-communicated changes to living standards and public services lie at the core of the success. But some party and union insiders fear a loss in the upcoming Runcorn by-election and Reform gains in the Senedd may see the leadership lurch further to the right in rhetoric — raising the salience of immigration, the welfare bill, and “government waste,” which would play directly into Farage’s hands.

It’s time to take the fight to Reform. It’s not enough for union leaders to simply brand Farage a racist demagogue and hope it sticks, nor will ignoring Reform make it go away. Working-class voters are not immune to economic despair, nor to messages that promise dignity and control. Many are tired of being patronised by politicians who parachute into their towns once a decade. If Reform is the only party talking in terms that feel real – sovereignty, jobs, pride – don’t be surprised if people with union cards in their back pockets start to listen.

For unions, that means exposing Farage’s hypocrisy to their members. Here is a man who instructed his MPs not to back Labour’s employment rights bill, voting against banning fire and rehire, against banning zero-hours contracts, against stronger protections for workers. If Reform wants to cut taxes, how exactly does it plan to fund better public services? Labour, the media and the unions should all now be demanding that Farage and his party show their working — and if they won’t, let's do the maths for them. A lower tax take means less money for local authorities, schools, and the NHS.

They should also challenge Farage’s blue-collar cosplay. Far from a man of the people, he is a self-interested careerist who has made a living from sowing division. Brexit was his only noticeable success – and the country’s biggest failure. He has flirted with offshore citizenship schemes and he boasts about his friendship with Donald Trump, the same man using British industry as a pawn in his economic trade war with China. Farage’s comments about Ukraine and his admiration for Putin should serve as a warning: he would sell British workers down the river for the right deal.

Labour feel caught between the demands of fiscal discipline and the need to offer a compelling, economic alternative. But this is where the unions are key: not just institutionally, but symbolically. They are the bridge between the party and the working-class communities it was built to represent.

If Starmer’s Labour continues to sound like a technocratic boardroom pitch while Farage rolls into town with promises of protectionism and patriotism, the results could be detrimental. That means being bolder on industrial policy, rejecting austerity, and offering tangible alternatives that speak to people’s everyday struggles.

The unions are on the frontline of this ideological contest. And everything that disillusioned Reform voters say they want – community, representation, fair play – is rooted in the trade union tradition. The movement must lead that conversation. And crucially, Labour must follow.

See more of our Westminster Editor Zoë Grünewald writing on a range of political topics, from the long-overdue closure of the non-dom tax loophole, to the short-sighted cutting of international aid budgets, how new austerity is ‘scorched earth policy’ to the political and economic inequality faced by the North of England and civil service cutbacks. Consider becoming a paid supporter of The Lead to receive exclusive additional stories and content from Zoë.