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Labour must not seek to “Out-Farage Farage”, the leader of Britain’s trade union movement has warned, as Keir Starmer’s Government faces a backlash from Labour MPs over its recent migration and asylum policies.
The Home Secretary on Monday unveiled a series of hardline plans to limit the rights of refugees seeking asylum in the UK, saying that the UK must not offer a “golden ticket” to those arriving here.
The plans, which include proposals to make asylum seekers wait up to 20 years for permanent residence in the UK, and a controversial pledge to seize the assets, including jewellery of those seeking refuge, have caused outrage among many Labour MPs
Labour MP for Stroud, Simon Opher, was among those who urged his party to “push back on the racist agenda of Reform rather than echo it”.
This is a sentiment which is shared by Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress.
Speaking to Byline Times in advance of the Government’s latest plans, Nowak said: “I’ve been very clear in terms of Labour: I don’t think you can out-Farage Farage.”
Nigel Farage will “always up the ante further” on migration, he argues. “That doesn’t mean the Government shouldn’t have a values-based, sensible, fair approach to migration.
“But as soon as you start using their language, aping their rhetoric, I think that’s a slippery slope…It’s not where Labour wants to be politically or morally. And I don’t think there’s any electoral advantage in it either, because if that’s what you want, you’ll go and vote for Nigel Farage.”
The TUC leader, who represents Britain’s 5.5 million member-strong union movement, was speaking before this week’s announcement from Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, where she pledged “the most sweeping reforms of the asylum system in modern times” and “a clear plan to make it less attractive for illegal migrants to come to Britain [and] make it easier to remove illegal migrants off British soil.”
In an interview with this outlet at the TUC’s central London HQ, Congress House, last week, Paul Nowak said: “Lots of people care about migration, but lots of people care about the state of the NHS. Lots of people care about economic insecurity and the cost of living crisis as well. Farage has got nothing to say about those things. I think Labour should be talking about those things.”
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‘Nasty Brand of Politics’
He added that anti-migrant policies could backfire: “If you want to vote for that nasty brand of politics, you’ll vote for the real deal, rather than the…imitators.”
But Nowak saved most of his ire for Reform UK, noting the party’s backing for mass deportations of migrants “echoes the National Front of the 1970s”.
While Nowak is concerned by the rise of Reform – and the party’s effect on political debate in the UK – does not believe their rise is unassailable.
“I don’t think Nigel Farage in Number 10…is by any stretch inevitable.” But the party is “poisoning the political discourse”, he added.
“Our job is to expose the gap between what Reform says and what Reform does.”
Asked how the union movement was engaging with the party, Nowak says: “We’re very clear at the TUC: we won’t platform Reform. What we will do is engage with them where it’s absolutely necessary, where it’s vital to represent the interests of members.”
However, it is not “helpful” to label Reform as a fascist party, the union movement leader believes: “I don’t think they are a fascist party. Clearly there will be fascists who support them. It’s like that little thing: not everyone who voted Reform was a racist, but all racists vote [for] Reform.”
Nowak thinks that, ultimately, the party’s potential Cabinet ministers-in-waiting will not prove an attractive proposition to voters.
“Richard Tice, Andrea Jenkyns and Nadine Dorries do not look like an impressive roster to me.”
The TUC is stepping up its work to tackle Reform UK and its arguments, saying Farage’s “real interests are aligned with, not working class people, [but] the tech billionaires, [media mogul] Paul Marshall and others.”
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Racists on the Rise
The TUC will make a clear distinction between Reform’s voters and the party leadership itself.
“I don’t think that voting Reform makes you