'Cosplaying' Union leader rounds on Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage is a "political fraud and hypocrite" who is "cosplaying" as a working-class champion to win votes at this week's local elections, the UK's most senior union chief has said.

- Pippa Crerar

In a stark rejection of the Reform UK leader's attempts to court the trade unions, Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the TUC, said there were "massive contradictions" in Farage's positions on issues ranging from workers' rights to the economy, industry and Brexit.

Before the local elections on Thursday, in which Reform is expected to gain hundreds of seats across Labour's post-industrial heartlands in the Midlands and north of England, Nowak said he understood the disillusionment with mainstream politics but that the rightwing party was not the answer.

He urged Labour not to learn the wrong lessons from the anticipated results by pitching to the right, telling Keir Starmer he "should not have a crisis of confidence" when he has a parliamentary majority of 170.