Nigel Farage has said Reform UK could be a “good friend” to the labour movement as he hit back at criticism voiced by Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
In comments last week, Nowak called the Reform leader a “political fraud and hypocrite” who is “cosplaying” as a working-class champion.
Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, the TUC chief warned against Farage’s attempts to court the trade union movement and pointed to “massive contradictions” in Reform’s positions, including on workers’ rights.
The attack came with Reform expected to make significant gains in the local elections on Thursday across Labour’s post-industrial heartlands in the Midlands and north of England.
Farage spoke to BBC Breakfast on Monday morning to discuss Reform’s prospects and central pitch as voters prepare to head to the polls.
Asked what success would look like for Reform at the local elections, Farage looked forward to a “big evening”.
He said: “We’ve got a parliamentary by-election taking place in Runcorn [and Helsby], which is Labour’s 16th safest seat in the country, but we are certainly running close.
“We’ve got six mayoral contests, a couple of which I think we are going to win, and then, of course, we’ve got 1641 council seats up. I know that Reform are going to get a big share of the vote, how that translates into seats, I simply don’t know.
“But what I see is we’re doing well against the Conservatives in the south and well against Labour in the north. So it could be a big evening.”
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Farage went on to rubbish the Labour attack-line that Reform’s local elections candidates are composed of “failed Tories”.
Referring to recent research conducted by Labour, he said: “I think what the Labour Party found was about two and a half per cent of our candidates had formerly been Conservative councillors.
“We also got former Lib Dem councillors and former Labour councillors too.
“No, we are not left, we are not right, we are common sense — we’re standing up for British values, we feel that what both local government and national government is broken in Britain, and people want a fresh new voice.”
Farage was then asked about Nowak’s criticism and Reform’s attempts to “court” the trade union movement.
The row between the TUC chief and Farage comes after the latter backed calls for British Steel and failed water companies to be nationalised. Farage also delivered a speech in County Durham, the spiritual home of the miners, earlier this year in which he vowed to “re-industrialise Britain”.
The former UKIP leader said: “I think [Nowak is] very scared. Don’t forget, it is the trade unions that fund the Labour Party — Unite and GMB, between them, have put nearly £50 million pounds into Labour since 2020.
“But many union members are going to go and vote Reform on Thursday. And Paul Nowak doesn’t seem to like that.
“Look, we are on the side of working people. I was in Scunthorpe the other week — I made the call with my colleague, Richard Tice, for action to happen, and the government did something.
“So I would just say to Paul Nowak, don’t turn your back on people that actually could be good friends to you.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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