Labour initiatives to fight Reform are proliferating as party and polling pressure grows on Keir Starmer to do more, from new blue ads either aping or spoofing Reform material to a new Blue Labour caucus of MPs.
LabourList has learned two MPs are also visiting Germany today to learn from progressive counterparts about fighting their far right, just as one poll puts Reform four points clear of Labour and a group of Red Wall MPs urge tougher messaging on immigration.
The Find Out Now survey comes after YouGov polling put Reform for the first time this week (albeit by one point), and found 56% of voters said Labour’s immigration policy was “not strict enough”.
Senior figures appear to have got the message. Keir Starmer yesterday followed Wes Streeting last week in picking a fight with Nigel Farage over his controversial NHS comments. Streeting has said Labour must “take on the populists”. One Red Wall MP used a recent parliamentary speech to excoriate some local Reform activists’ tactics, accusing them of spreading “hatred”.
Meanwhile LabourList revealed plans for more direct Reform-facing materials, and senior party figures are now sharing expertise and lessons on Reform-fighting tactics from council by-elections with some MPs.
Now we can reveal Labour ads in a conspicuously Reform-style teal colouring are being shared on party Facebook pages not only in Runcorn and Yorkshire and the Humber as reported by The Guardian today – but also more widely in areas including South Swindon and Aldershot and Farnborough.
The same ad, noting a five-year high in “migrant removals” – making clear only in smaller font later it means illegal migrants – has also been shared on the Labour North West, Burnley Labour and Westhoughton Labour pages. Notably it is in yellow in the north west versions, perhaps suggesting greater worries about the Liberal Democrat or independent threat.
But the ads also come alongside some spoof ads, like the one shared by Burnley MP Ollie Ryan attacking Farage’s past NHS comments on Thursday:
MPs seek lessons from Germany
Such worries about the far-right are not limited to the UK, with a poll today putting the far-right on course for a record 20% of the vote later this month, with the Social Democrats only projected 15%.
Plymouth Moor View MP Fred Thomas and Rother Valley MP Jake Richards travelled to Berlin on Thursday to meet with progressive peers, seeking to compare notes on handling Reform and handling the far-right Alternative for Germany.
READ MORE: Which Labour MPs at most at risk from Reform?
Thomas, whose seat saw Reform snatch up 22.6% of the vote in 2024, said it was “not surprising” voters were looking beyond the main parties given Tory “chaos and scandal” and a Labour “not ready” to hear their concerns under Jeremy Corbyn.
He told LabourList: “We’ve changed; that’s why we won. It’s our job to prove in everything we do that we understand people’s concerns about strain on their services, including from immigration, and about income and opportunity.”
Blue Labour is back once more
Back in Britain, one Red Wall group of MPs formed last year has now been joined by a second group equally concerned about the Reform threat.
The Blue Labour parliamentary group has its origins in the socially conservative but economically radical ideas of former Ed Miliband advisor Maurice Glasman.
Glasman is still at the intellectual nerve centre of the group, alongside the academic Jonathan Rutherford, and the former Labour MP and author Jon Cruddas, with whom Glasman is separately working on a project on the future of the left at the right-wing think tank Policy Exchange.
The group’s core MPs are Jonathan Hinder, Jonathan Brash, David Smith and Dan Carden, with the latter one of the most notable given he was once an ally of Jeremy Corbyn. However, LabourList has learned the number of MPs involved is said to be growing and now into double digits.
Brash said Blue Labour were talking to other parliamentary groups of Labour MPs, although he declined to name names. The different groups are “all broadly aligned”, he said,”in the sense that they all have a very clear view of what needs to happen in the communities they represent, in terms of growth, investment, and jobs”.
The BBC reported this week that a group of 40 MPs in Red Wall seats are calling for a stronger message on immigration and more investment.
The group, which is reportedly working with Jonathan Ashworth’s think tank Labour Together, wants to see the Government shout louder about what it is doing to remove illegal immigrants, as well as invest more in northern England. Bassetlaw MP Jo White is said to be the group’s convenor.
MPs stress their aim is delivering on manifesto
Speaking to LabourList, Brash said the group was “more about outcomes and policies” than “any particular label you want to attach to it”, such as Blue Labour.
He said there wasn’t a “hair’s breadth of difference” between Blue Labour’s aims and Labour’s 2024 manifesto, but that the group wanted to make sure that the party delivered on those promises.
He flagged “Treasury orthodoxy” as one of the potential roadblocks for the government fulfilling the manifesto’s ambitions.
“I think there is a question mark over Treasury orthodoxy. I’ve been very clear about that before, the ‘Mandarin Metric’ as I sometimes refer to it, which is the idea that every pound has to maximise GDP.
“The idea that if you invest a pound in a place that’s got fantastic transport infrastructure already and has a lot of the skills base already, then you will get growth further and faster – but that’s not going to get you the most value for your country.
“That’s not going to get the most value for those communities that need the most help.”
Drive to expose right-wing Reform agenda
Echoing ministers’ focus on Farage’s NHS policies, Brash slammed Nigel Farage’s party as “Thatcherites”.
“They are Thatcherites when it comes to the British economy. They don’t believe in big spending, they don’t believe in the public sector or the NHS.”
He added that it was important for Labour to expose that Reform doesn’t believe in those things, and to show that it does. PoliticsHome reports this week the party itself is planning more attacks on Reform’s policies too.
Reform figures appear unfazed for now on the surface at least, with Farage laughing and accusing Starmer of “panicking” in the Commons this week.
READ MORE: ‘Worried about the latest YouGov poll? This is how Labour beats Reform’
One senior Reform source told LabourList that the Red Wall MPs had five years to collect their salaries before they would have to “go and get other jobs”.
They said the party was setting up branches across the country, and hosting weekly conferences and “sold out” rallies. “Every seat is a target.”
In particular, the source said the party expected to win in South Wales next year, citing its success with voters in former industrial heartlands.
They also listed Ed Miliband’s seat in Doncaster as a target, adding: “We will take him out next time.”
Which MPs could be most at risk?
Indeed, the energy secretary’s seat appears on a new list of the top 50 of those most at risk from Reform, compiled by Reform-backing academic Matt Goodwin.
Goodwin and his team used the latest census and other surveys to identify the most reportedly “demographically receptive” seats for Reform, and combined them with the 2024 general election results to identify areas where Reform also polled well in the past.
The top 15 were:
1. Lowestoft – Jess Asato
2. Rawmarsh and Coinsbrough – John Healey
3. Easington – Grahame Morris
4. Bishop Auckland – Sam Rushworth
5. St Austell – Steve Double
6. Cannock Chase – Josh Newbury
7. Doncaster North – Ed Miliband
8. Great Grimsby – Melanie Onn
9. Aberafan Maestag – Stephen Kinnock
10. Sittingborne and Sheppey – Kevin McKenna
11. Rhondda and Ogmore – Chris Bryant
12. Kingston upon Hull East – Karl Turner
13. Stoke-on-Trent North – David Williams
14. Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney – Nick Smith
15. Washington and Gateshead South – Sharon Hodgson
Reform UK placed second in 89 Labour seats across the country, with many of them located in the North East of England, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and southern Wales.
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