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Major trade unions and the TUC have rebuffed Nigel Farage’s call for unions to affiliate to Reform UK, saying the party is “cosplaying” as workers’ champions and has opposed new employment rights.
Farage issued a call on Tuesday for unions to attend Reform’s conference and to affiliate to the party, and he suggested one union may be on the brink of doing so.
Eleven trade unions are affiliated to the Labour party but a recent poll suggested there was growing support among trade union members for Reform UK.
But leaders of the TUC and five other big trade unions including Unison, GMB and Unite all hit back at Farage’s invitation, saying Reform was the party of “corporate interests” and criticising its opposition to new rights for workers.
In an interview with the Times, Farage said union leaders were “spending their members’ money on policies that their members do not support”. He said: “Reform now runs councils that employ tens of thousands of unionised workers: bin men and women, social workers, care staff, school support workers.
“Unlike the snobbish Tories of old, we will never treat organised labour with contempt. If you represent working people in this country, my door is open. The doors of every Reform council leader from Sunderland to Sandwell are open.”
The TUC general secretary, Paul Nowak, said Farage’s past comments on workers’ rights legislation and plans to repeal the Equality Act spoke for themselves. “Let’s be crystal clear: Reform are no friends of working people. If they were, they wouldn’t be planning to rip up workers’ rights like day-one sick pay and protection from fire-and-rehire and zero-hours contracts,” he said.
“Reform can cosplay as champions of workers all they like. But the reality is they’re bankrolled by corporate interests and crypto billionaires who want the rules rigged even further in favour of the rich and powerful, not working people.”
TUC sources pointed to recent comments from Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns, who said last year: “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t like trade unions,” and criticised the employment rights bill.
Unison’s general secretary, Andrea Egan, said: “It’s a con to think Nigel Farage and his rich cronies are interested in unions for anything but cold, hard cash. They don’t believe in basic rights or fair pay and consistently voted against every measure to improve them.”
The Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “If I had a pound for every politician who said they are the party of workers I’d be a rich woman. Reform have shown absolutely no evidence that they are friends of workers. Not signing up to the Employment Rights Act, inferring privatisation of the NHS and threatening local authority pensions seems the exact opposite.
“What needs to happen now is for is the Labour party to stop dithering and be the voice of workers. A little less conversation – a little more action.”
The GMB general secretary, Gary Smith, called Reform “rebadged Tories” and said it would not help working people. “Mr Farage and his Reform MPs say one thing to workers and do another,” Smith told the Guardian.
“They voted against sick pay and other essential safeguards. They even want to prevent people organising to make work better at places like Amazon. We see them for what they are – rebadged Tories after union members’ basic rights.”
Community, the union which represents significant numbers of steelworkers, whom Farage has pledged to support, called his intervention “farcical”. The union’s assistant general secretary, Alasdair McDiarmid, said: “The Reform party has consistently voted against the interests of working-class people while under his leadership.
“It is clear Farage will say whatever it takes to win votes, but workers will see through his misrepresentations.”
Other unions, including those with more strained relations with Labour, also rejected Farage’s advance.
The Fire Brigades Union said Farage was a “Thatcherite who is an enemy of trade unions” and added: “Firefighters and other workers will see this ludicrous stunt for what it is by a party led by multimillionaires that is a threat to the working class.”
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association general secretary, Maryam Eslamdoust, also said her members “will not be conned by this ridiculously and desperate gimmick from Farage”.
In his Times interview, Farage said the party would “extend an open offer to trade unions to apply – in good faith – for affiliation to Reform UK. Second, we invite the unions to attend Reform UK’s national conference in September, and engage in discussing the policies of a future Reform government.
“We want to ensure that what happens in Westminster finally reflects the interests of the working majority.”
A recent poll by JL Partners found Labour and Reform were tied with 28% of the union vote each. It found that members of Unite and GMB were more likely to support Reform.
The Labour chair, Anna Turley, said Farage had threatened to strip away “vital changes which are set to benefit 15 million workers across the country.
“Farage and Reform have promised to strip all these hard-won rights away and instead they are determined to hand out tax cuts to foreign billionaires. That’s bereavement leave, maternity and paternity rights, and sick pay all at risk if Reform won power.”
