Stop echoing the right’ on migrants, union boss warns

Britain’s top union boss has issued a warning to Sir Keir Starmer and the entire left of politics that they need to reclaim the narrative on the immigration debate in the face of the threat from Nigel Farage and Reform.

- DAVID MADDOX

Writing in The Independent today, Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), appears to chide Sir Keir for his controversial speech on migration earlier this month, warning that the left “should not be echoing the right”.

In a week where the gloves have come off in the fight between Reform and Labour, Mr Nowak has urged the prime minister to confront the “dangerous and false” claims of Mr Farage.

But, crucially, with chancellor Rachel Reeves trying to squeeze public finances in her spending review set to be published on 11 June, the union boss demanded that she finds the cash to properly fund the Fair Pay Agreement in social care and the Fair Work Agency, which he believes are at the heart of part of the problems with immigration.

His piece comes just days after Mr Farage gave a speech overtly targeting Labour and left-wing voters, claiming Reform is “the party of the workers”. That speech was followed two days later by one from Sir Keir, accusing Reform of having economic plans which would cause “a Liz Truss-style economic meltdown”.

With battlelines drawn, Mr Nowak, whose unions are Labour’s biggest donors, has decided that the TUC needs to make its first intervention on the migration debate at the heart of Mr Farage’s message to working-class people.