The Rise of Reform

"Yesterday’s (1-5-2025) local election results should give us cause to pause and reflect. Reform have caught the political establishment by surprise by the extent of their success.

It is widely acknowledged that Reform achieved a major political breakthrough. The party won the Runcorn and Helsby parliamentary by-election by a razor-thin margin, overturning a massive Labour majority and gaining its first MP in this Parliament. It also captured two newly created mayoralties in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull & East Yorkshire, signalling growing regional support. Additionally, Reform UK took control of ten councils, including Staffordshire and West Northamptonshire, and even my own Derbyshire and secured a total of 677 council seats nationwide — surpassing both Labour and the Conservatives in vote share.

Political pundits say that this represents a seismic shift in the political landscape, with voter projections suggesting that Reform UK could now command up to 30% of the national vote in a general election.

Starmer: Reform's best recruiter

For those of us, who have been keen political observers, this will not come as any surprise.

Notwithstanding the steady right-ward drift that has been going on in the Labour Party for decades, many observers are attributing the meteoric rise of Reform to the mis-directed policy decisions of the current Labour government.

In the run-up to the General Election, last year, Labour promised to be the party of change, but many of us, observing many of Starmer’s lies and U-turns on progressive policies, on assuming the leadership of the Party, knew that the promised change would never materialise. The last 10 months of Labour government has surpassed even the lowest expectations of the most sceptical of us. The betrayal of the WASPI women, the removal of the winter fuel allowance, attacks on the benefits of the disabled, the continued support for rogue state of Israel in its genocide of the Palestinian people, not to mention the pumping of £billions into an unwinnable war in Ukraine, while simultaneously complaining about the ‘black hole’ in the country’s finances, not to mention their anti-immigrant rhetoric.

It seems that the Labour Party faithful are beginning to recognise the root cause of their electoral problems.  The narrowly re-elected Labour Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones said just after the count:

“I think national government needs to look and see what people are saying. I wrote [to Starmer] as soon as the winter fuel allowance was mooted and I said it was wrong…The results tonight demonstrate that they need to be listening to the man, woman and businesses on the street and actually deliver for the people, with the people…The working man and businesses want national government to listen to them properly and help drive this great country forward…What I’m saying to Keir is this: he needs to listen and take action.”

It is precisely that sense of betrayal by Labour, that has driven people into the arms of Reform. The result of Labour’s desire to out-right, the Right. History shows us that at times of economic difficulties, some will react positively to populist, right-wing rhetoric, people like Reform, that exploit people’s fears and prejudices, in its unholy grasp of the reins of power. Once unthinkable, now, a Farage-led government in 2029 seems a distinct possibility.

This country is crying out for genuine change, not endless iterations of re-warmed Thatcherism. For most of my adult life I have seen this country passed from one establishment-led party to another, each party promising change, which never materialises, while the quality of life has diminished for the working classes.

There is an urgency about the situation that we find ourselves in, we have just four short years to prevent a Farage-led, fascist government here in the UK. There has to be a fight-back against the fascistic Reform party.

The Socialist Labour Party stands in a unique position to provide the alternative. The Socialist Labour Party stands on a truly socialist platform, with a transformational manifesto, a manifesto that is a blueprint for a just and equitable society. The Party’s manifesto directly addresses the need for the abolition of capitalism, which is the root of the country’s problems and provides the political mechanism for the transference of wealth to those who create it, through their effort and labour, the working classes, with the aim, as enshrined in the Party’s constitution, “To promote political, social and economic emancipation of the people as a whole.” (Clause IV, 16). A cause and a future worth fighting for.