“Will you be standing up for British workers or voting against strengthening their rights?” That’s a question posed to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in a letter from the “red wall” group of Labour MPs. It’s part of a visible new determination on the part of the governing party to trip up Farage and stymie his rising polling numbers. It may work. But it’s far from clear that it will.
The Labour party clearly believes Reform has a vulnerability. Its socially conservative views – most notably on immigration and Brexit – appeal to a broad cross-party coalition of pro-free market, economically rightwing Tories and poorer, pro-redistribution former Labour voters. However, when it comes to economic policy, the interests of the two groups diverge quite sharply. If the electoral battleground in 2029 is the detail of economic policy, that will matter.
-copy-29e15046.jpeg?w=600)
