Nigel Farage’s Reform UK appears set to usher in a major political realignment, with the insurgent party now on equal footing with the Labour Party among trade union members, as the governing leftist party continues to bleed working-class support to the populist right.
A “damning” survey from JL Partners has found that Reform UK and the Labour Party both now enjoy 28 per cent support among active union members, The Times of London reported.
This came as the left-wing Labour Party saw a staggering 20-point drop in support among unions since Prime Minsiter Sir Keir Starmer came into power in 2024. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s party has seen its support among union members shoot up by 12 points during the same period.
The poll further found that Reform is currently leading Labour among members of two of Britain’s largest unions, with 36 per cent of Unite members backing the Farage party compared to 30 per cent for Labour. Reform also leads Labour by 31 to 22 per cent among GMB members.
Responding to the poll, Mr Farage said: “This polling tells me exactly what I have seen on the campaign trail. Labour is no longer the party of the patriotic working class. That mantle now belongs to Reform, which is now the party of those who work hard but for whom the system doesn’t work.”
The Reform chief said that the polling also showed that trade union bosses are increasingly “out of touch” with the rank and file, while arguing that the 11 trade unions officially affiliated with the Labour Party should “listen to their members” and consider allying with Reform, instead.
The survey comes on the back of historic victories for Reform at last month’s local elections across the UK, during which it picked up 1,450 council seats in England, many of which were won at the expense of the Labour Party.
The erosion of the so-called “Red Wall”, named so given Labour’s previous strangle hold on the local electorate in the working class northern regions of England, began in earnest during the 2016 Brexit Referendum, when contrary to its Eurosceptic roots, much of the Labour Party establishment sided with David Cameron’s “Conservatives” and capital interests such as the free movement of migrant labour from the continent.
The distance between the London elites in charge of the left-wing party and their former heartlands has only grown since, with Labour focusing heavily on niche urban woke interests rather than on the kitchen-table issues on which the party was founded.
Although prognosticators initially attempted to pigeonhole Reform as appealing only to disaffected Conservative voters, Farage and his team have spent the past two years actively campaigning in traditional Labour areas to court the Brexit-backing working class, who in many cases felt politically abandoned.
For example, Reform has been willing to shirk traditional Tory positions, such as dogmatic adherence to free markets, and to come out in favour of nationalising key industries, such as steel production, to protect British jobs from international predatory powers like Communist China. In another major pitch to working-class voters, Reform came out this month with a promise to enact a Trumpian-style elimination of income tax on overtime hours.
The battle for the working-class vote will once again be put to the test later this month in a special election in Makerfield sparked following the resignation of anti-Breitbart activist Josh Simons vacated his seat in the House of Commons to make way for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to launch his third bid to become leader of the Labour Party and to oust Prime Minister Starmer following the disatrous performance in the local elections.
The Cambridge-educated alum of the previous two Labour governments, Burnham has attempted to recast himself as a working-class champion by serving as mayor of Manchester for a decade. However, the former Westminster insider will face off against Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon, a local lad from the constituency who serves as an Army reservist and runs his own white van man plumbing business.