LONDON — Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, called for trade unions to affiliate with the party and attend its national conference in September. The invitation comes as a JL Partners poll found that Labour and Reform UK were tied with 28% of the trade union vote each.
The TUC, GMB, Unison, and Community unions rejected the invitation for affiliation with Reform UK. Farage stated, "Union leaders are spending their members'money on policies that their members do not support." He added, "Reform now runs councils that employ tens of thousands of unionised workers: bin men and women, social workers, care staff, school support workers."
Paul Nowak, TUC general secretary, responded to Farage's call. "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." Nowak said. He added, "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."
GMB general secretary Gary Smith stated that Farage and Reform MPs have acted inconsistently. "Mr Farage and his Reform MPs say one thing to workers and do another. They voted against sick pay and other essential safeguards." Smith said. He added, "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." Eleven trade unions are currently affiliated with the Labour party, and the same JL Partners poll indicated that members of Unite and GMB were more likely to support Reform UK than other unions.