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

Published

1 month 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

More than 1,000 doctors urge MPs to vote against assisted dying bill

Published

3 hours ago

June 9, 2025

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More than 1,000 doctors urge MPs to vote against assisted dying bill

More than 1,000 doctors have written to MPs urging them to vote against the assisted dying bill, calling it a “real threat to both patients and the medical workforce”.

The bill – which is due to be voted on by MPs for a final time on 20 June – would allow terminally ill patients from England and Wales to end their lives “on their own terms”, providing they have a life expectancy of six months or less.

A separate bill is currently passing through the Scottish parliament.

But doctors from across the NHS have written to MPs, warning them of their “serious concerns”.

Notable signatories include Sir John Burn, a geneticist who has led decades of cancer research, Sir Shakeel Qureshi, who was knighted for his work in paediatric cardiology, Professor Aileen Keel, the former deputy chief medical officer for Scotland, and Baroness Finlay, a Welsh doctor, professor of palliative medicine and member of the House of Lords.

The letter is signed by four doctors who hold OBEs, two who have MBEs, and one CBE.

The letter says that while a debate is needed on end of life care, “this bill is not the answer”.

It raises concerns that not enough evidence has been heard from doctors, people with disabilities and other marginalised groups.

“This bill will widen inequalities, it provides inadequate safeguards and, in our collective view, is simply not safe,” it goes on to say, calling it a “deeply flawed bill”.

Professor Colin Rees, a member of the Royal College of Physicians working group on assisted dying, said it was the “single most important piece of healthcare legislation in 50 or 60 years”.

“It will have very profound consequences for the future and many doctors are really concerned that members of parliament are not hearing the views of the medical profession.”

He said many doctors who remain neutral, or who even support the principle of assisted dying, remain concerned about the bill.

“We don’t think it’s a bill that is safe, that protects patients, protects families, and protects the medical workforce.”

What stage are the two assisted dying bills at now?

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed the House of Commons with a majority of 55 in November.

Scotland’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland Bill) pass with a 14 majority in May.

But the legislation has not been without controversy, with 150 amendments made to get it through the first stage.

The bill will return to the House of Commons for a third reading this Friday. If voted through by MPs it will then proceed to the House of Lords.

‘No safeguards against coercion’

One of the areas of concern raised by the medics was the inability to properly identify patients at risk of coercive control.

“Vulnerable patients are at risk of coercion with women, victims of domestic abuse, and the elderly at particular risk,” the letter says.

It also warned it would widen social inequalities, with patients who do not have the resources for a comfortable death more likely to opt for assisted dying.

“People who struggle to pay for heating or care or wish to preserve their assets for their children are at high risk of choosing to die if the option is available and the alternative is more difficult.”

Data from the Annual Report of Dying With Dignity from Oregon in 2024 found 9.3% of those people who choose assisted deaths do so for financial reasons.

‘Doctors get it wrong 40% of the time’

Concerns have also been raised around the inaccuracies of medical prognosis.

“Research demonstrates that doctors get prognosis wrong around 40% of the time,” the letter says.

“As such, patients may end up choosing an assisted death and losing what could have been happy and fulfilling months or years of life.”

The bill is also a risk to families, the letter says, as it does not require doctors to speak with family members.

“A close relative may know nothing until they get a call to arrange collection of their relative’s body,” it says, adding that there is no mechanism for a family member to raise concerns about a request.

The letter also addressed the potential impact on the medical workforce.

Evidence from the Netherlands suggests “doctors feel pressurised when dealing with patient requests for assisted deaths, meaning that doctors may end up having involvement despite it being against their principles, because they want to help their patients”.

Doctors’ letter highlight concerns about the risk to:

Patients

Does not necessitate treatment of depression or other remediable factors; does not protect against risk of coercion, particularly for women and the elderly; does not ensure that the assessment panel must meet the patient; will widen social inequalities, adversely affecting the socioeconomically deprived; does not take account of the inadequacies of assessing medical prognosis.

Families

Does not necessitate any involvement of families. The first they may know is when they are called to come and collect the body; assumes that an assisted death is ‘better’ than a well-managed natural death but there is little or no evidence in the literature for this assertion.

Palliative care

Makes it a legal right for patients to access assisted dying, but does not mandate a comparable right to be able to access other end of life services; means that patients may choose assisted dying because palliative care provision is inadequate • Places palliative care consultants (a speciality in which 80% of doctors are opposed to assisted dying) at the heart of delivering the services; ignores the fact that the UK is currently ranked higher for its palliative care services than any country that delivers assisted dying and the fact that countries that introduce assisted dying almost invariably see a decline in the quality of their palliative care services.

The medical workforce

Does not adequately recognise the risk of harm to doctors from delivering assisted dying; is unclear whether assisted dying should be considered a ‘treatment’.

Provision of adequate care

Proposes a panel which is not a multidisciplinary team and will not know the patient; proposes use of drugs which are not regulated or approved and does not mandate any monitoring of their complications.

UK

‘Ordering a woman to be sexually exploited is as easy as ordering a takeaway’: How trafficking victims are being sold online

Published

9 hours ago

June 9, 2025

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'Ordering a woman to be sexually exploited is as easy as ordering a takeaway': How trafficking victims are being sold online

*Sarah thought she was going to a job interview to become a waitress.

Warning: This story includes graphic descriptions of sexual exploitation and abuse, including rape

Instead, she was lured to a strange man’s flat and held against her will for six months.

“One of the very first things he did was ask for me to hand over my passport to check that I had the right to work,” she says. “I remember him asking me kind of odd questions, like, ‘do you like sex?’

“I remember him taking me into another room within this flat and closing the door behind him, then locking the door. And then I was raped.“

She says her passport was used to create an online profile to advertise her for sex.

She had no control over the adverts, no access to the accounts, and was repeatedly abused by her trafficker and the men who booked her through the website.

“My abuser would say: ‘This man would like to see you, he’s booked you, but he’s requested sloppy seconds. Okay? I am going to rape you again so that when you go and see this man, you will take that to that man’,” she tells Sky News.

Sarah says she was forced to take on different names to match her trafficker’s rotating online personas.

She ultimately escaped after threatening to scream unless her abuser let her go.

“He just glared at me, furious,” she recalls. “But he opened the door. That was the moment I had. That was the moment I took. I ran out and never saw him again.”

Sarah’s abuser is now in prison. But the website that he used to facilitate her abuse is still operating.

A Sky News investigation has uncovered thousands of potential indicators of sexual exploitation on two of the UK’s most prominent adult service websites, raising serious concerns about how traffickers may be using these platforms to advertise and abuse victims like Sarah.

Analysis of more than 50,000 adverts on AdultWork and Vivastreet – two of the country’s largest escorting platforms – revealed a high concentration of red flags linked to organised exploitation, including repeated use of the same contact numbers, and/or duplicated advert text, across adverts for different women in different geographical locations.

These patterns, highlighted by the Sex Trafficking Indication Matrix (STIM), a research tool used to identify signs of trafficking, suggest some profiles may be linked to coercive networks.

In one case, the same phone number appeared in eight separate adverts for at least five different women, all listed with identical ages, nearly identical descriptions, but different photographs and spread across multiple UK regions.

Neither platform is accused of criminal activity, but experts and campaigners say the scale and nature of these indicators are red flags for potential abuse.

Prostitution is legal in England and Wales. But the controlling of prostitution for gain, sometimes called pimping, and the more severe crime of trafficking, are not.

“These platforms make it as easy to order a woman to be sexually exploited as it is to order a takeaway,” said Kat Banyard, director of campaign group UK Feminista.

“There are big questions for national policing to answer about why it is that this important investigation has had to be done by Sky News, and why it wasn’t national policing that was launching an investigation to uncover the scale of potential criminality on these sites.”

Over several months, Sky News used STIM indicators to assess escorting adverts across two platforms. On Vivastreet alone, more than 7,000 were linked to phone numbers that appeared multiple times – more than half the total number of listings at the time.

On AdultWork, over 1,000 ads were found to contain duplicated descriptions.

In one example on AdultWork, the same wording was used in 357 different listings – a sign that content may have been copied and pasted to cover for multiple individuals under a single operator.

The websites told us duplication can reflect legitimate activity, such as touring sex workers using aliases. However, opponents say their structure allows abusers to hide in plain sight.

Sky News can also reveal that officials at the Home Office met representatives from escorting websites 25 times between 2017 and 2024, under the previous Conservative government.

Critics argue these discussions have failed to lead to meaningful safeguards or regulation.

A Home Affairs Committee report in 2023 was highly critical of this kind of engagement.

And in parliament, pressure is building to take stronger action. Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi has tabled an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill that would seek to ban such websites altogether.

“This is a thriving, multibillion-pound industry, and we’re acting like there’s nothing to see here,” she says.

“It’s horrific, and I think more people need to be speaking out about it – this gives parliamentarians the opportunity to discuss and debate it on the floor of the house.”

In a statement, a Vivastreet spokesperson said: “Experts are clear that indicators that may suggest exploitation can have innocent explanations.

“For example, it is a fact that many sex workers use different names and personas, and ‘touring’ – moving for short periods of time to different areas to take bookings – is a well-known practice.

“We take safety extremely seriously and deploy industry-leading security measures to detect, report, and remove potentially exploitative content, including new requirements that all adult category advertisers must undergo age and ID verification.”

AdultWork said: “Sexual exploitation is not tolerated in any form.

“We have strict internal policies in place to reinforce this and we are continually updating our internal systems for detecting accounts and requesting additional documents for evidence of legitimacy.

“We make it a priority to fully cooperate and comply with all law enforcement requests. Additionally, any indications or reports of trafficking are fully reviewed and if we find them to be suspicious, we proactively contact law enforcement.”

Whether escorting platforms can be better regulated – or whether they should be outlawed entirely – remains a point of national debate.

But with mounting evidence of potential exploitation and growing political scrutiny, campaigners say inaction is no longer an option.

“These platforms are so poorly moderated and poorly regulated,” Sarah says. “No one can sit behind a screen and know if someone’s being coerced or is at the mercy of a predator.”

*Sarah’s name has been changed to protect her identity

UK

‘It’s simply not safe’: A thousand doctors write to MPs urging them to vote against assisted dying bill