Sir Keir Starmer’s party may have only been in power for seven months but in that time the Prime Minister has seen his favourability ratings plummet while trust in his government declines. As the Labour lot fret about their waning popularity, Reform UK is enjoying a surge in support – with two recent polls, by FindOutNow and YouGov, showing Nigel Farage’s party beating Labour among voters. So concerned are the reds by the rapid reversal in their fortunes, a number of Labour MPs have now formed an informal group built to defeat Reform. How very interesting…
As reported by the Guardian, Labour politicians from the 89 constituencies where Farage’s party came in second place at the July poll have created a new caucus that will put pressure on the PM to go harder on tackling immigration and crime – and figure out how to better appeal to Reform supporters. ‘There is a major focus now on how to beat Reform,’ one MP told the Grauniad, adding:
Various groups have been set up and we have been talking to Downing Street about what works. One of our main messages to the leadership is we need to do more on illegal migration especially.
Another politician spoke to the newspaper about how Labour’s progress – the government says it has deported almost 13,500 people since July – isn’t cutting through, lamenting: ‘We need to take tougher action on immigration, but we also need to shout louder about what we are doing.’
There certainly seems to be a lot of effort going into the project. It transpires that Downing Street has even enlisted strategy and data pros to help MPs figure out which messages work best with voters swaying towards Reform – while the PM’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney has made the taking back of support from Reform one of his top priorities. Labour’s campaign guru believes his party need to significantly better public services to get Brits onside – and hopes his past experience of combatting the British National party in London will help dissipate the Reform threat.
And it’s not just the BNP example that is being scrutinised – a group of Labour figures is planning to jet off to Germany ahead of the country’s elections to figure out what they can learn from the rise of the right-wing AfD. As they say: if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
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