Keir Starmer has been warned that trade union members are turning to Nigel Farage because he is too obsessed with polls and not properly focussed on the cost of living.
Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), spoke to The Independent ahead of releasing his new year message with shocking polling by Survation revealing the depth of the crisis faced by many households.
The trade union boss has said that the prime minister and his cabinet need to stop playing games and be focussed on the cost of living crisis in 2026.
According to the findings of the poll commissioned by the TUC and and campaign group 38 Degrees, one in five (21 per cent) are skipping meals every day or most days because they cannot afford to eat or are making sacrifices for their children.
More than one in three (36 per cent) are cutting back on their heating every day or most days.
Four in five (79 per cent) say their financial circumstances are either stagnant or getting worse
Mr Nowak warned: “The government needs to focus relentlessly on the cost of living and then the polls will look after themselves.”
Suggesting that there is too much attention to weekly polls in Downing Street, he added: “Politicians are focussed on the minutiae of polls while ordinary people are focussed on the minutiae of their bank accounts.”
The TUC leader has applauded the workers rights package passed just before Christmas, adding that it was trade unions who forced a “reluctant” Labour government to ditch the two child benefit cap.
But he has insisted “there is more that needs doing.”
He also warned that a failure to “deliver the ‘change’ that was on the front of th Labour manifesto” means people are turning to Reform in what he believes is a mistaken view that Mr Farage will solve their problems.
The Reform UK leader has flirted with leftwing voters with promises of nationalising steel production and water companies as well as scrapping the two child benefit cap before Labour relented on the issue.
Mr Nowak said: “A lot of our [union] members vote Reform. But we should not be going around calling them racists though.”
Instead he wants the Labour government to expose what a Farage led government would really do while dealing with the actual day to day problems people have.
He said: “A Farage led government would be a disaster for workers. Those new rights that we’ve just secured would be under attack, a return to austerity, privatization of our NHS, you know, his big economic reset speech where, you know, delivered it in the City of London and talked about the need to deregulate the finance sector, because that worked so well the last time round.
“Obviously trashing the relationship with our closest trading partner in terms of the European Union. So, you know, I mean, we’ve got no doubt reform would be a cul de sac.”
But instead he, like many others in the trade union movement, is concerned about the amount of infighting within the cabinet and manoeuvring by rivals to replace Sir Keir.
He said: “When a government is trailing so far behind in the polls and the PM’s personal approval ratings are low, there’s always going to be some sort of speculation.
“I think it’s incumbent on everybody, the prime minister, the cabinet, the Labour government, the entire parliamentary Labor Party, you can’t afford to take your eyes off the day job, which is delivering on living standards, and indulge in the sort of internal naval gaze here, who’s up and who’s down in the cabinet.”
He added: “I think there are some people who who see politics as a game. I don’t think for our members, politics is a game.
“I mean, this, this is the difference between, you know, for some people, it is at the sharp end about whether they are tending on the heating or, you know, God forbid, missing a meal, because, you know, they rather the kids have tea, rather than, you know them.”
And while trade unions remain Labour’s biggest donors there have been a number of larger unions which are now questioning their ongoing relationship with Labour under Sir Keir’s leaders.
Unison, the biggest trade union, just elected Corbynista Andrea Egan who wants to reduce support for Labour, while the second biggest union Unite is discussing disaffiliating from the party.
Mr Nowak said: “Our job is not to be passive cheerleaders on the sideline applauding everything the government does. I think our job is to work with the government to deliver on the issues that really matter to our members and their families and their communities, to call the government out and they got it wrong.”