Nigel Farage Hopes Net Zero Will Help Him Win Over Union Members

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Union leaders say they are fully aware that Nigel Farage is trying to win over their members. “It’s something we’re taking seriously," one figure told PoliticsHome.

After doing significant damage to the Tories at the July general election, Farage is now setting his sights on Keir Starmer's Labour, describing Reform UK as "the party of working people".

The party's rise in the opinion polls has created nervousness among Labour MPs.

Around 90 per cent of seats where Reform came second in July are held by Labour, and in many of these, the majorities are precarious. A strong Reform showing at Thursday's local elections — when the party hopes to make hundreds of gains, unseat Labour in a by-election, and win at least one mayorality — will sharpen the sense of Farage's electoral threat.

The Reform leader's effort to court Labour voters has become increasingly clear in recent weeks, with Farage publicly adopting traditionally left-wing policy positions, like calling for the nationalisation of British Steel and major water companies.

Given the historic closeness between Labour and the unions, the image of Farage posing with union leaflets in Scunthorpe earlier this month, as well as his reluctance to directly criticise those on strike in Birmingham, has not gone unnoticed in Westminster.

"We’re very alive to Farage targeting union workers”, one union figure told PoliticsHome.

“It’s something we’re taking seriously... Unions are not being complacent. We are out there doing everything we can to highlight Farage as the fraud he is.”

“We have a job to do, making that case to members."

Union leaders unambiguously reject the notion that their organisations could warm to Farage.

“Unions will continue to expose him for the political fraud he is. We know the threat he poses to workers in this country,” said Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, who in an interview with PoliticsHome called the MP for Clacton a "complete phony".

However, when it comes to union members, Farage and co believe they have an opportunity.

“People are seeing the destruction of industry jobs in heartlands that were traditionally, socially conservative Labour. Scunthorpe is a dramatic wake-up call for everybody”, Richard Tice, Reform's deputy leader, told PoliticsHome.

“It’s everything we're hearing on the doorstep...

“Those workers in those industrial areas are fuming, absolutely fuming."

"We will take the fight to any political opponent on net zero"

Reform believes its opposition to net zero is a key route to blue collar workers.

“The next general election will be about two things: immigration and net zero,” Tice told PoliticsHome. Farage has described net zero as the next Brexit.

The net zero agenda has challenged Labour's relationships with unions amid concerns that moving away from traditional industries could lead to job losses.

Last year, Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham warned that decarbonisation must not come at the expense of workers like those employed in North Sea oil and gas. “Workers cannot be sacrificed on the altar of net zero," she said in a speech.

There are some Labour MPs who privately worry that the government is currently failing to make a convincing case for net zero by 2050 amid the threat of Farage and co.

"This isn't about climate change, it's about jobs and job security. We've got to create a better narrative," complained one northern Labour backbencher.

Another Labour MP in the North suggested ministers should consider watering down green policies: "Is it really worth sacrificing our party for the sake of cutting our emissions that are already below one per cent?"

The debate over green policy has resulted in Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, who is one of the government's most enthusiastic advocates of net zero, coming in for hostile anonymous briefings.

His allies insist he will not back down, however.

"We will take the fight to any political opponent on net zero," one told PoliticsHome.

"The only way to take back control of our energy is with clean, homegrown power we control, and we will have that fight any day of the week," they said, adding, "for five years, we've built a climate agenda that is rooted in the economic change people want to see."

The Miliband ally sought to stress that Great British Energy is one of the Labour government's most popular policies, and that opinion polls have consistently shown public support for net zero across all demographics, including the voters Reform is trying to court.

Labour's net zero enthusiasts were reassured by the Prime Minister's speech to a major climate conference in London last week, where he said the UK government would go "all out" to decarbonise the economy in the face of calls to slow down.

“Some in the UK don’t agree with [net zero]," said Starmer.

"They think energy security can wait. They think tackling climate change can wait."

"But do they also think that billpayers can wait? Do they think economic growth can wait? Do they think we can win the race for green jobs and investment by going slow?”

The Prime Minister's remarks were seen as a strong declaration of support for the net zero agenda. As Farage continues in his bid to woo Labour voters, however, the strength of that position will likely come under increased political pressure.