source: wikipedia commons

In a country scarred by decades of neoliberalism, it seems almost farcical that the party that is predicted to win the largest number of seats is offering the same, only worse. 

Nigel Farage has presented Reform UK as a rebellion against the status quo, but beneath his promises of “common sense” lies an agenda – one designed to slash protections for ordinary people and launch a dramatic assault on our human rights. 

Reform’s appeal is not impossible to comprehend. There is real anger over wages, housing, and public services, while the establishment parties of the Conservatives, Labour, and even the Liberal Democrats have done little to improve people’s lives. Reform and its members’ biggest success has been channelling this away from neoliberalism and the bourgeoisie, towards migrants and the “Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati.”

Reform’s official economic platform promises to “put British workers first,” by ending the importation of cheap foreign labour, cutting taxes on workers, and cutting red tape for small businesses. While this ostensibly appears to help workers, close scrutiny shows these policies to be anything but.

The main draw of cutting migrant labour is that it increases the bargaining power of domestic workers, allowing them to fight for better working conditions. However, this is a cheap substitute for the measures that would genuinely help; stronger employment protections, collective bargaining, and sustained investment. Without these measures, labour shortages instead force existing workers to work overtime, accelerate burnout and increasing staff turnover.

Reform’s goal of abolishing Indefinite Leave to Remain is more than economically flawed. In creating a migrant workforce whose residency depends on satisfying their visa conditions, it significantly reduces immigrants’ ability to challenge workplace abuse or join collective action. This makes them easier to exploit, undermining the collective fight for workers’ rights across the country. 

Falling for Reform’s attempt to blame exploited immigrants for the neoliberal economic model is core to its economic policy.

Reform’s attack on migrant economic security is part of a broader assault on human rights. Reform has promised to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, repeal the Human Rights Act, and extend the much-maligned Conservative policy of deporting people via planes, criticised both for its appalling waste of government resources and its inhumane treatment of people.

This exposes a contradiction at the heart of Reform’s politics. While Farage claims he wants a smaller and frugal state, he is more than willing to police, detain, and deport those he deems undesirable using taxpayer money. 

This is furthered by Reform’s policies regarding police, including mandatory minimum sentences and an expansion of stop and search policies.

Reform does not truly advocate a smaller state, but a selective one. 

It wants a state that involves itself less in protecting workers from exploitation, and more in policing them and undermining the workers’ movement. 

Reform’s attack on legal protections would not stop at the border either. Suella Braverman, former Home Secretary under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, claimed a Reform government would repeal the 2010 Equality Act, which protects millions of people against discrimination on race, sex, sexual orientation, and disability, both in the workplace and wider society. 

By collapsing anti-discrimination laws into their broad hatred of ‘woke’ ideology, Reform tries to present years of activists’ work fighting for equal rights to defend workers as little more than bureaucracy.

Reform’s attack on workers expands to workers’ economic protections from no-fault evictions and diminish their employment rights. Reform Deputy Leader Richard Tice promised a “great repeal act”, scrapping the Starmer government’s few contributions to protecting workers such as its protection against no-fault evictions.

The fact that such a programme can be sold as rebellion against the establishment is testament to Reform’s marketing. Farage has cultivated an image of himself as a beacon of the common man, even when any research into his policies would weaken the ability of ordinary people to challenge their bourgeois employers and landlords. 

Many can fall for this persona without a full understanding of his policies’ practical implications. However, this branding does not translate into a stable governing body. 

Within weeks of the May local elections, Liberal Democrat Mark Pack listed 16 council positions that have since been departed by Reform councillors for various reasons. This raises serious questions about Reform’s capacity to vet candidates outside of Farage’s immediate circle.

To combat this, the left cannot dismiss Farage’s fan club as fools and dismiss their anger as ignorant. 

It must instead provide a clearer explanation for why living standards have declined – not from immigration, but from a long-term effort to shift power away from the workers by successive neoliberal governments. 

Reform has learned how to engage with Britain’s anger, it is up to us to expose who benefits when they point it in the wrong direction.