Why trade union members are turning their backs on Labour for Reform - Jayne Dowle
A shock poll finds trade union members are now as likely to support Reform UK as Labour and obviously Nigel Farage is triumphant.
“Labour is no longer the party of the patriotic working class,” Reform UK’s leader told The Times, the newspaper which conducted the poll.
In just 11 words, Farage has blown open a shaky myth. Labour’s appeal to ‘the patriotic working class’ has by no means always been a given, nor as widespread and deeply-held as some would perhaps believe.
It is also quite a substantial stretch to make ‘working class’ equal ‘trade union member’.
Although a useful bellwether, the two do not necessarily go hand-in-hand these days. According to official government figures, around 6.6 million people now belong to trade unions; that’s less than a quarter (22.4 per cent) of all employees.
Perhaps this is a minor cavil, but it shows something of an assumption, and not just on Farage’s part. All of this benefits from closer analysis.
Whilst swathes of the former industrial heartlands and inner-city seats, often influenced by the presence of the student vote, have until recently never or rarely voted anything but Labour, what used to be called ‘working class Tories’ have always been with us.
You only have to look back at the successive victories of Conservative PM Margaret Thatcher to see that without substantial support across class divides she would never have been returned to power three times.
She won her first General Election in 1979, against a backdrop of trade union-led strikes and industrial dissent. By no means all workers supported such actions; many saw her as a saviour from constant strife and supported the Tories for the first time in their lives.
Also, the key policies of the ‘Iron Lady’ appealed to ‘the patriotic working class’ who wanted to progress through life.
Key was the Right to Buy council houses, bringing homeownership to tenants who otherwise would never have been able to afford stepping onto the housing ladder.
The Falklands War in 1982 was a triumph of patriotism and populism, and in more philosophical terms, the focus of individual over society at the heart of her political thinking began to break the collectivism that had long characterised working class politics.
So whilst Farage is crowing and taking all the credit, perhaps he - as well as Labour’s high command - need to take a good long look at the history books.
Obviously, the trade unions and the Labour movement are historically bound together, the unions being the key founders of the party in 1900 as a coalition with other socialist societies, alongside left-leaning intellectuals and reformers such as George Bernard Shaw and Beatrice and Sidney Webb.
The whole structure of Labour has trade unions at its core. They provide the largest source of funding for the party, financing local and national election campaigns. Crucially, they also hold a lot of power within the structure of the party. Unions elect a substantial bloc of representatives to Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), meaning they hold a lot of sway over governance and strategy.
And, at the annual Labour Party Conference, affiliated trade unions hold 50 per cent of the delegate votes; this means they exert massive influence over the party's official platform and policy direction.
All of which leaves Labour with a huge problem it cannot afford to ignore.
The poll, carried out by JL Partners, found the two parties are now tied at 28 per cent among union members, and Labour has suffered a 20-point drop since 2024.
Union leaders are blaming this shocking turnaround in Labour’s fortune on cuts to the winter fuel allowance and welfare and green energy policies.
Sharon Graham, whose Unite union is Starmer’s largest donor - but held an unprecedented meeting with Reform UK officials in Birmingham in April - told reporters that Labour had “no natural right to exist” and that there was “no guarantee that workers will return”.
She added: “Labour has abandoned the working class, and the working class have abandoned Labour.”
More than half (62 per cent) of trade union members polled said Labour had “lost touch with working people”.
Farage now ranks as the most favourably viewed party leader among union members, as well as the most popular choice for prime minister. A further blow to Andy Burnham then, that nothing will be guaranteed in Makerfield.
What emerges from all of this is a life-defining situation for Labour. The big question is, is it too late to turn around this oil tanker rapidly heading for further electoral disaster?