Seaside Labour MPs Unite To Resist Reform Wave

Polly Billington, Labour MP for East Thanet, chairs the Coastal PLP of over 60 MPs. She is also the admin of the WhatsApp group. Vocal members include Billington as well as West-super-Mare MP Dan Aldridge and Blackpool South MP Chris Webb.

MPs within the group have met on a monthly basis. When these Labour MPs have got together, discussions have focused on restoring Britain's seaside towns and the recent rise of Farage's Reform UK — two issues that members say are very much linked.

The group is due to meet with Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones in early March to push for more funding for their coastal communities, PoliticsHome understands.

This coastal caucus is the latest internal grouping to become more vocal in recent weeks as Labour MPs consider how to combat the right-wing threat.

Earlier this month, PoliticsHome revealed the 'Blue Labour' group's plans to push Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a more socially conservative direction in a bid to take the fight to Farage, particularly on migration. PoliticsHome understands that the Co-operative Party, which is in a close electoral pact with Labour, plans its own intervention in the coming days.

Coastal MPs agree with other parts of Labour about the importance of community to their chances of securing a second term at the next election. However, they place a greater focus on tackling deprivation and improving public services, and unlike Blue Labour are not pushing for a harder government line on migration. According to Webb, "delivery" is what matters to constituents.

Seafront areas tend to be more conservative than the national average. Farage's former party, UKIP, won its first-ever seat in a 2014 by-election in Clacton (where Farage now represents as a Reform MP).

A large majority of coastal towns voted for Brexit in 2016 and later formed a key piece in the electoral jigsaw that propelled Boris Johnson to his large majority in 2019. At that general election, the Conservatives had a 22-point lead in ‘Sea Wall’ — a term psephologists use to describe seats on the coast of England and Wales.

Labour bucked the trend in July 2024 after it won the second-largest majority in parliamentary history and inflicted the worst electoral defeat on the Tory Party in 200 years.

Research from the Fabian Society, a left-leaning think tank, found that of 106 constituencies on the coast in England and Wales, Labour won 63 seats, the Tories 22, Liberal Democrats 14, Plaid Cymru three and Reform three.

Since the July election, the government’s popularity has plummeted, while Reform has surged to lead in some opinion polls. Labour MPs in coastal seats fear that their areas will be particularly ripe for Farage to exploit unless the government delivers tangible positive change.

Billington, a former journalist and adviser to Ed Miliband, the current energy secretary, said Tory "indifference" to coastal communities led to the party's collapse at the last election. However, she warned that her party does not now have a monopoly on the voters.

“[I] am under no illusion that in four years’ time, coastal voters will want to feel the benefit of more money in their pockets and public services that work again, or they will simply go elsewhere,” she told PoliticsHome.

The newly-elected Labour MP criticised “cynical opportunists” such as Farage, who she said offers simplistic answers which appeal to voters’ sense of disaffection.

“[If] you look at what Nigel Farage’s party is actually offering on public services and the economy, it’s NHS privatisation and a tsunami of unfunded tax cuts that would make Liz Truss blush,” she said.

Billington's constituency East Thanet, which she holds with a majority of nearly 7,000, was created from South Thanet, where Farage unsuccessfully stood for election in 2015.

Labour’s seaside seats are disproportionately at threat from the populist right, according to Ben Cooper, Research Manager for the Fabian Society. "Unless Labour delivers for coastal towns and tackles disaffection, the tide will turn in the Sea Wall – and Reform will reap the rewards," he told PoliticsHome.

Coastal PLP member Webb said it was imperative to solve regional inequalities in constituencies like his Blackpool seat to win re-election.

Men living in Blackpool on average live until their 73rd birthday, six years below the national average, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), while 45 per cent of neighbourhoods in his constituency in the northwest are classed as deprived.

Reform came second in his seat in July, cutting his majority to under 7,000.

“[Voters] are going to Reform out of frustration,” Webb said. “They’re seeing Reform as a way to protest, a way to mount their annoyance with the system. But when delivery happens, they instantly come back because Reform does not have the answers on a lot of issues.”

He added: “We've got to keep that pressure on. It's also about improving the health inequalities of people and access to public services, which has been decreasing for years and years.”

Coastal seats are at threat of going to Reform because they have felt “let down” for generations, according to Jess Asato, the new Labour MP for Lowestoft.

Seaside resorts have among the lowest wage levels in the country, with local economies dependent on seasonal work and low-paid sectors such as hospitality and social care. 

Research from the London School of Economics (LSE) found coastal towns had low educational achievement levels and an older workforce compared with the national average. 

“There is something in the fact that these communities are definitely places which usually feel as though they have had the least amount of investment over quite long periods of time,” Asato told PoliticsHome.

Even in more upmarket seaside areas – such as Torquay and Torbay – housebuilders have found it more difficult to build more houses, exacerbating property prices, which in turn makes it less affordable for young professionals to move into the area and work. 

The past week has left Labour confident that Reform, while polling well, has weaknesses.

While Farage disagreed with his friend Donald Trump that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a "dictator", his delayed response to the US president's controversial remarks about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as Reform's general handling of the issue, has prompted rivals to accuse the right-wing party of being weak on Vladimir Putin. 

Labour has also stepped up its attacks on Farage's views on the NHS, with Labour MPs using recent Prime Minister's Questions to accuse the Reform leader of wanting an "insurance-based system" for the health service. Farage accused Labour of panicking about his party's rise, and said "Reform want healthcare to be free at the point of delivery."

"There are definitely weaknesses in Reform's armour at the moment," said Scarlett Maguire, Director at pollsters JL Partners. "We're not really seeing where they're going to land on places like the NHS, the economy, net zero... There's a lot of working out to do."

However, looking further head, she said Farage poses a particularly significant electoral threat to Labour in the party's seaside seats.

"Coastal communities have suffered worse deprivation than a lot of other places. You have an increased potential for feeling like mainstream parties are not working for you, and we've seen that Reform is ruthlessly targeting these areas," she told PoliticsHome.

"It is significant that Clacton voters not just voted in Nigel Farage, but by such a dramatic margin."

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