If the latest local election results tell us anything, it’s that Nigel Farage is no longer just a fringe disruptor. Reform UK, under his watch, is becoming a political force capable of rewiring British class politics – starting with Labour’s traditional base.
Union members defecting
Trade union members – once the immovable spine of Labour’s working-class support – are defecting in droves. In Durham, once an unshakeable Labour stronghold and home to the storied Miners’ Gala, Reform now holds council control. That’s not a protest vote; it’s a realignment.
Populist playbook
What’s unfolding is not merely a rightward drift. Farage has artfully borrowed from the populist playbooks of both Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn, tilting Reform’s message to meet working-class voters where Labour no longer dares tread. Bin strikes? Farage backed the workers. British Steel? He called for nationalisation. Thames Water? He said investors “deserve to lose every single penny.” It’s a blend of economic radicalism and cultural reactionism that’s proving electorally potent.
Timid technocrats
Labour, meanwhile, under Sir Keir Starmer, seems intent on triangulating itself into irrelevance in these communities. Supporting private solutions for British Steel while dismissing strike action and remaining largely silent on the corporate failures of water privatisation makes it look timid and technocratic. That might play well in suburban swing seats, but it leaves behind the industrial heartlands Labour was built on.
Choice between labour and Reform
The unions know it. So do voters. That’s why internal polling by Unite found many of its members turning towards Farage. That’s why the Communication Workers Union is openly saying that, in many workplaces, “the choice really is between Labour and Reform.”
Farage is not a friend to the trade union movement. Let’s not forget, the TUC has denounced him as a “Putin apologist fraud.” His flirtations with privatising the NHS and his anti-diversity rhetoric are red flags. But what matters right now is that he’s filling the vacuum Labour created by abandoning its roots.
Labour must find their mojo to fend of Reform
Labour must confront the uncomfortable truth that culture wars are not enough to mask its economic centrism. Working-class voters don’t just want empathy – they want policies that tangibly improve their lives. Reform is offering the illusion of that with a thunderous voice. Labour, by contrast, is whispering cautiously from Westminster.
If the left does not reclaim the language and urgency of economic justice, it will lose not just votes, but the very foundation of its historic purpose. Farage has cracked open Labour’s base. The question now is whether Labour has the courage – or even the strategy – to win it back.
