Warning to Labour

Union conferences have warned the Labour government against “surrendering to the far right” and losing support to the far right Reform UK party through “deeply unpopular” attacks on working class communities.

Last month’s annual conference of the FBU firefighters’ union passed a motion calling for the union and labour movement internationally and in the UK, to “urgently prepare themselves for the onslaught of the far right”.

It came hard on the heels of prime minister Keir Starmer’s speech on immigration in which Starmer said Britain risked becoming an “island of strangers”.

FBU general secretary Steve Wright told the conference: “If all the Labour government can do is echo Reform’s rhetoric and attack migrants, we face a dangerous future.

“As a Labour affiliated union, we will be making that case through the NEC, at party conference and with ministers.”

Meanwhile, the leader of the PCS public and commercial services union, Fran Heathcote, told last month’s PCS conference that Labour’s attacks on working class communities are the reason the party is losing support to Reform UK.

Heathcote said: “Reform isn’t winning because its message is popular — it’s winning because too much of what Labour is doing is deeply unpopular.”

She added: “When you attack pensioners, attack disabled people and attack workers’ jobs or pay, then don’t be surprised if they don’t then turn out to vote for you.”