How Nigel Farage is flirting with Labour’s most loyal voters – and the battle to stop him

Published

3 months ago

May 6, 2025

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For much of its history, the trade union movement’s main opponent has been the Conservative Party. But now it finds itself taking on a different type of adversary – one it might describe as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

It began when Nigel Farage, known for being a staunch advocate of free trade and private markets, declined to criticise the Unite union for its bin strike in Birmingham, before calling for the nationalisation of British Steel following the near collapse of its plant in Scunthorpe.

The Reform UK leader has been sweet-talking the trade unions, speaking their language and brandishing their leaflets in public in what appears to his critics to be a new opportunistic strategy.

Farage’s courting of union members has alarmed the movement’s leaders – so much so that Sky News understands the executive of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which represents unions across the country, has been holding meetings to draw up a strategy on how best to combat his appeal and more broadly, the far-right.

Over the weekend, as the two main parties were processing the battering they received in the local elections largely courtesy of Farage’s party, Unison’s general secretary Christina McAnea urged members of councils now controlled by Reform to join a union.

“Unions are there to ensure no one can play fast and loose with the law,” she said, after Farage threatened to sack staff working in areas such as diversity or climate change.

‘Political fraud’

Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the TUC, has begun to step up his criticism of the former UKIP leader – accusing him of “cosplaying as a champion of working people”.

“He is not on the side of the working people,” he tells Sky News. “He’s on the side of bad bosses who want to treat staff like disposable labour.

“Unions will continue to expose him for the political fraud he is.”

At the moment, that campaign is largely focused on highlighting Farage’s voting record – in particular his decision to oppose the Employment Rights Bill, legislation unions say they have wanted for decades.

The bill offers protection from unfair dismissal from the first day of employment and sick pay for all workers from the first day of absence, among other measures.

The TUC says the bill is incredibly popular – and not just among Labour voters.

According to a poll it conducted of more than 21,000 people with campaign group Hope Not Hate, banning zero hours contracts is supported by more than seven in 10 UK voters – including two in three Reform voters from the 2024 election.

“People are going to find there are improvements to their life and work,” an insider tells Sky News. “We want them to understand who was for it, and who was against it.”

The TUC has also begun promoting videos on social media in which workers in the electric vehicle industry accuse Farage of threatening their jobs.

Farage’s response to the bill has been to claim that a clause within in that gives workers protection from third party harassment could herald the end of “pub banter”.

‘There has always been fellow feeling with unions’

But Gawain Towler, an ex-Reform press officer who has worked on and off for Farage for 20 years, insists his former boss isn’t against workers’ rights – he’s just opposed to Labour’s bill.

“Reform don’t see it as a workers rights’ bill – we think it takes away opportunities for work because it scares people away from employing people,” he says.

He believes “mass migration” is the real obstacle to better wages and job security, and argues net zero policies are “costing union members their jobs”.

The government may point to a recent study suggesting the net zero sector has grown by 10% over the past year, supporting the equivalent of 951,000 full-time jobs.

For Farage’s allies, his courting of union members is neither disingenuous nor new.

“He’s anti-union management, he’s not anti-union,” says Towler, who noted Farage’s friendship with the late union leader and Brexit advocate Bob Crow.

“Nigel has always been a free trader, but he’s never been deeply partisan, which is why he was able to start the Brexit Party. There has always been that fellow feeling with unions.”

Indeed, on one issue, a commonality is emerging between Reform and the GMB union.

While general secretary Gary Smith has criticised Farage for being “soft on Russia” and for voting against the Employment Rights Bill, there is an agreement between the pair over the impact of net zero.

Those sceptical of the government’s plans for the green transition point to Port Talbot in Wales, where 2,500 workers are expected to lose their jobs, and Grangemouth, where the closure of Scotland’s last remaining oil refinery is expected to result in around 400 job losses.

Although Unite has no common truck with Reform, it has warned there should be “no ban without a plan” when it comes to issuing new oil and gas licences.

‘Labour has one shot with workers’

For some unions, Labour’s position on certain issues has provided Reform with an opening.

There’s disappointment at some Labour policies in government – from partly watering down the Employment Rights Bill to stave off dissent from business leaders, to welfare cuts and offering below-inflation pay rises for public sector workers.

Gawain Little, the general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions, tells Sky News the party risks leaving “space open for fakers like Farage to come along and pretend they have people’s interests at heart”.

Only a sense that austerity is over, likewise the cost of living crisis, will truly “challenge” the Reform leader, he says.

One GMB member says Farage’s strategy is “from the same playbook” as right-wing parties in Europe, such as the AfD in Germany and Georgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.

By “continuously legitimising” Reform by talking tough on migration, union activists who usually get the word out for Labour have been left demoralised.

Farage on the picket line?

The current distance with some unions did not start in government. It began in opposition, when Labour refused to back workers who were on strike and when the party did not endorse some candidates put forward by some of the more left-wing unions.

But so far, sources in Labour have dismissed Farage’s tactics as just words – and believe his previous anti-union rhetoric will weigh against him when he tries to court votes.

In fact, Mr Farage’s calls for the renationalisation of steel have been interpreted as him “trying to jump on the bandwagon” of Labour’s success.

However, Damian Lyons Lowe, the founder of pollster Survation, spots danger for Labour if Farage is able to successfully tilt in the direction of workers’ rights – especially if the government finds itself unable to follow.

He says taking the side of unions in an industrial dispute over pay would be an example of a classic “wedge” strategy that Farage can deploy to back Labour into a corner.

And given the government’s initial 2.8% pay offer to public sector workers is below that reportedly drawn up by the independent pay review body for NHS workers and teachers, there is the very real prospect this scenario could arise.

“It could pose a real threat to Labour,” Lyons Lowe says, with union members in “post-industrial” areas potentially receptive to a message of “protectionism, industrial revival, and national self-sufficiency”.

Could what started with Farage brandishing leaflets end up with him joining the picket line?

While one union insider doesn’t think Farage will ultimately convince union leaders, members may be tempted.

The Starmer government has “one shot to deliver for workers”, they warn.

“If they don’t, Farage and Reform are waiting in the wings.”

UK

Starmer to meet European leaders for ‘coalition of the willing’ talks on Ukraine

Published

8 hours ago

August 17, 2025

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Starmer to meet European leaders for 'coalition of the willing' talks on Ukraine

European leaders who make up the ‘coalition of the willing’ are set to hold a conference call on Sunday – ahead of crunch talks between Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy next week.

The coalition – co-chaired by Sir Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz – has the aim of bringing countries together to protect a peace deal in Ukraine.

Top of the agenda at Sunday’s meeting will be securing a concrete commitment from Mr Trump on a security guarantee that would act as a powerful backstop in any Russia-Ukraine peacekeeping arrangement.

Ukraine war latest: Putin comments on Trump talks

European leaders seemed buoyed by the US president’s most recent hints on the subject, in the knowledge that US military might is likely to deter Vladimir Putin from advancing in the future.

They will also discuss how to bring Mr Zelenskyy into talks after Mr Trump and Mr Putin’s Alaska meeting saw him left out in the cold.

In coordinated statements, European leaders said Mr Zelenskyy must play a greater role in future talks, and that peace cannot be achieved without him.

The hard bit will be to persuade the unpredictable US administration to change its approach, something that has proved almost impossible in the past.

When Mr Trump re-entered the White House and made it clear the US would no longer provide a blank cheque to protect peace in Europe, others decided they had to step up, and the ‘coalition of the willing’ was thrown together in March.

Since then, information about the allied peacekeeping effort has been patchy, but we know it includes over 30 countries, which have been asked to pledge whatever military support they can, including troops.

What has been forthcoming from the group though, has been consistent attempts to use their limited leverage to put pressure on the US.

That will continue ahead of crunch talks between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy, which are set to take place in Washington on Monday.

UK

Why fresh sea legs are vital in the UK fishing industry

Published

11 hours ago

August 17, 2025

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Why fresh sea legs are vital in the UK fishing industry

In a small hut next to Newlyn Harbour at the bottom of Cornwall, the next generation of fishermen are quite literally learning the ropes.

Around a dozen students are on the eighth day of a two-week intensive course to become commercial fishers.

From knot and ropework to chart plotting, navigation to sea survival, by the end of the course they’ll be qualified to take a berth on a vessel.

While many are following in the footsteps of their fathers, others are here to try an entirely different career.

Elliot Fairbairn, 28, is originally from London and has been working as a groundworker.

“I’m not from a fishing family – I just like a challenge,” he says.

He’s put his current job on hold to see how fishing works out.

“It makes you feel good doing a hard job. I think that’s what’s getting lost these days, people want an easy job, easy money and they don’t understand what it takes to be successful. Sometimes you’ve got to put that in the work.”

Elliot already has a job lined up for next week on a ring-netter boat.

“I’m ecstatic – I’m very pumped!” he tells me.

Also on the course is 17-year-old Oscar Ashby. He’s doing his A-Levels at Truro College and training to be a healthcare worker at the main hospital in Cornwall.

“I’m part of the staff bank so can work whatever hours I want – which would fit quite well if I wanted to do a week’s fishing,” he says.

It’s his love of being outside that has drawn him to get qualified.

“It’s hands-on, it’s not a bad way to make money. It’s one of the last jobs that is like being a hunter-gatherer really – everything else is really industrialised, ” Oscar says.

The course was over-subscribed.

The charity that runs it – Seafood Cornwall Training – could only offer places to half those who applied.

‘A foot in the door’

“The range of knowledge they’re gathering is everything from how to tie a few knots all the way on how to register with HMRC to pay and manage their tax because they’d be self-employed fishermen,” manager Clare Leverton tells me.

“What we’re trying to do with this course is give them a foot in the door.

“By meeting our tutors, skippers on the quay, vessel managers, they start to understand who they’re going to have to talk to to get jobs.”

Getting fresh blood into the industry is vital.

Over the last 30 years, the number of fishermen in the UK has nearly halved – from around 20,000 to 10,000.

The average age of a fisherman in the UK is 55.

Aging workforce

“I think we’re seeing the effects of having an aging workforce,” says Mike Cohen, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO).

“Fishing is a traditional occupation in most places around the country. A lot of family businesses, and as people are getting older, they’re starting to retire out of the industry.”

The decline comes at a time of frustration and anger in the industry too.

Many feel the prime minister’s post-Brexit deal with the EU back in May sold fishing out by guaranteeing another 12 years of access to EU boats to fish in UK waters, rather than allowing it to be negotiated annually.

“A large part of the effort the EU exerts in UK waters is within our territorial waters, so within 12 miles of the shore. And that’s the area that’s most pressured,” adds Mr Cohen.

“For new people getting into the industry it’s the area that they can reach in the sort of small boats that new starters tend to work in. They’re increasingly pressured in that space and by keeping all of those European boats having access to it for free, for nothing, that puts them under even more pressure.”

The government says it will always back “our great British fishing industry” and insists the EU deal protects Britain’s fishing access.

‘A brilliant career’

To further promote getting young people into commercial fishing, the Cornwall Fish Producers Organisation has helped set up the Young Fishermen Network.

Skipper Tom Lambourne, 29, helped set up the group.

“There’s not enough young people coming into it and getting involved in it,” he says.

“It’s actually a brilliant career. It’s a hard career – you do have to sacrifice a lot to get a lot out of fishing – your time is one of them. But the pros of that certainly outweigh it and it’s a really good job.”

Tom says the network supports new fishers by holding social events and helping them find jobs: “There’s never been a collective for young fishermen.

“For a youngster getting into the fishing industry to be sort of part of that – knowing there’s other youngsters coming in in the same position – they can chat to one another, it’s pretty cool really.”

In 2021, UK fishing contributed around 0.03% to GDP – with an economic output of £483m.

Economically, it is not a big player.

However, studies suggest that each fisherman creates 15 other jobs in the seafood trade on land.

It’s also a huge part of the fabric of the UK’s identity and landscape – and one that the next generation will have to fight to keep alive.

UK

Premier League opener halted after Antoine Semenyo reports racist abuse

Published

1 day ago

August 16, 2025

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Premier League opener halted after Antoine Semenyo reports racist abuse

A man was ejected from Anfield after reports of racial abuse directed at Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo during the season’s opening Premier League game against Liverpool.

Match referee Anthony Taylor paused play in the 29th minute after Semenyo accused a spectator of racist abuse.

An anti-discrimination message was read out to the Anfield crowd, and it is understood that police officers went into the referee’s room at half-time.

Merseyside Police said an investigation is under way after the 47-year-old man’s identity was confirmed and he was removed from the ground.

Chief Inspector Kev Chatterton, the match commander for the Liverpool v Bournemouth game, said: “Merseyside Police will not tolerate hate crime of any form.

“We take incidents like this very seriously, and in cases like this we will be proactively seeking football banning orders, with the club, against those responsible.”

He added: “There is no place for racism and it is vital that anyone who witnesses such an offence reports it to stewards, or the police immediately, so we can take the necessary action like we did this evening.

“As with all matches, we work very closely with both Liverpool and Everton FC to ensure the safety of the public, and the players.”

A spokesperson for Liverpool said the club was “aware of an allegation of racist abuse made during our Premier League game against Bournemouth”.

The Liverpool spokesperson said: “We condemn racism and discrimination in all forms, it has no place in society, or football.

“The club is unable to comment further as tonight’s alleged is incident is the subject of an ongoing police investigation, which we will support fully.”

After the incident, Semenyo scored twice in the second half to help bring Bournemouth back from two goals down at Anfield before Liverpool went on to eventually win the contest 4-2.

Bournemouth captain Adam Smith told Sky Sports News afterwards: “It shouldn’t be happening. I don’t know how Ant’s played on to be honest and come up with those goals. It’s totally unacceptable.

“Something needs to be done. Taking the knee isn’t having an effect. We’re supporting him and hopefully he’ll be OK.

“I wanted him to react because that’s what I would have done, but this shows what type of man he is…to come up with those goals showed the type of guy he is.

“To be fair the Liverpool players were very supportive as well towards Antoine and the rest of the team. It was handled in the right way but… so angry.

“I don’t know what else we can do. No one’s getting it. I don’t know what to say anymore. I just feel for Ant… shocking.”

The Premier League said in a statement that its “on-field anti-discrimination protocol” had been followed and the incident “will now be fully investigated”.

“We offer our full support to the player and both clubs,” it added. “Racism has no place in our game, or anywhere in society. We will continue to work with stakeholders and authorities to ensure our stadiums are an inclusive and welcoming environment for all.”

The Football Association said it was “concerned” about the allegation of racism towards Semenyo and that it would ensure “appropriate action” would be taken.

The incident comes two days after Tottenham Hotspur player Mathys Tel faced racist abuse online following a missed penalty in his team’s UEFA Super Cup victory over Paris Saint-Germain.