logo
Reform UK seizing control of councils sees rise in trade union membership

Reform UK seizing control of councils sees rise in trade union membership

Daily Recorda day ago

Reform UK have said they will seek to cut waste in local government, leading to fears of job cuts.
Union membership in councils run by Reform has increased since the party took control of local authorities after the May elections, new figures reveal.
The GMB, led by Edinburgh-born Gary Smith, said workers were 'flocking' to join unions amid fears of cuts to pay, jobs and conditions by Reform.
Councils where the GMB has seen an increase in membership include Durham, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Doncaster.
GMB national officer Rachel Harrison told the PA news agency: 'Reform spouts a lot of nonsense about being on the side of workers, but these figures show people aren't buying it.
'Workers in Reform-led councils are flocking to join unions because they know the first thing Farage and his cronies will do is attack low-paid staff's terms and conditions.'
Smith, who is the GMB 's General Secretary, launched an angry attack against Reform in a speech to the union's annual conference in Brighton at the weekend, saying Nigel Farage and his 'ex-Tory soulmates' were no friends of workers.
'They've spent a political lifetime attacking trade unions and the rights we have all fought so hard for. Decent pay, better conditions, protections we cherish.
'Why is it always the posh, private schoolboys who want act like they're working-class heroes?
'Do they really think we can't see the bankers, the chancers, the anti- union blowhards?
'If Reform are so pro-worker, why did they just vote against protections against fire and rehire? Why did they vote against sick pay for all workers? Why did they vote against fair pay for carers? Why did they vote against trade union rights to access and organise in places like Amazon?
'Now they are going to run town halls, and the first thing they want to do is sack council workers.
'It's high time they were called out for their sneering, snooty attitude about so-called ' gold-plated ' pensions.
"Go ask a local authority care worker, refuse collector, street cleaner, school support staff member if they think their meagre pension is gold-plated.
' Reform 's abuse and name-calling of low-paid public sector workers is an utter disgrace.'

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

A centrist position can only be justified after equality is achieved
A centrist position can only be justified after equality is achieved

The National

timean hour ago

  • The National

A centrist position can only be justified after equality is achieved

Inequality isn't neutral, it's a tilted seesaw. It pushes the poorest further down while boosting the wealth realisation and accumulation of the richest. To stand atop that imbalance and declare yourself 'perfectly balanced' is at best disingenuously counterproductive, and at worst outright delusional. What's needed is not performative equilibrium, but structural redress. Redistribution of wealth, regulation of exploitative advantage, restoration of public infrastructure, and creation of genuine opportunity – these are the conditions that lift people out of inequality. Only then, once the seesaw is levelled, can a centrist stance become viable. Balance must be built, not assumed. The centre can only hold if the extremes are held in fair tension. Labour offer nothing to correct the imbalance. Kemi Badenoch blames those weighing the seesaw down, as though the gravity of individual circumstances were a moral failing. Reform UK want to demolish the entire playground because it's 'too expensive', with no coherent plan to rebuild – just the fantasy that further disruption equals progress. The SNP, in government, have at least tried to steady the seesaw – tried to share the swings, repair the climbing frame, and offer fairer play. But they don't own the playground. They're fenced into Westminster's turf, and Keir Starmer seems determined to keep the gates locked. Ron Lumiere via email THE lesson from the Hamilton by-election result for the SNP is to let Labour and the Tories fight it out with Reform UK to represent the dwindling number of myopically indoctrinated supporters of the Union and focus on the critical argument that only independence can bring about a radical 'change in direction' for the UK through the constitutional change necessary to seriously address the fundamental problems confronting 'broken Brexit Britain'. The lesson for First Minister John Swinney is that it is now urgent that he arouse the passion and vigour for independence quietly dormant within him or step aside, at least from the leadership of the SNP, and support an individual who can inspiringly lead the country to independence before the end of this decade. A majority of MSPs supporting independence in the next Scottish election must represent a mandate for the Scottish Parliament to hold a binding constitutional referendum which, if denied by the UK Government, must legitimately underpin making the next General Election a 'de facto referendum' on independence. A majority of votes at the Scottish election must represent a mandate to commence independence negotiations should the UK Government fail, over a maximum period of one year, to pass legislation enabling the Scottish Parliament to hold constitutional referenda. Manifestos of the SNP and the other independence parties should both state these commitments and state the necessary actions that will follow should a resultant mandate be met with continued undemocratic intransigence by the UK Government. Further procrastination by the UK Government on implementing the democratically expressed wishes of the people of Scotland must not be accepted. To paraphrase the currently popular words of Roman General Vegetius, if you want true democracy, prepare to fight cynical totalitarianism. Stan Grodynski Longniddry, East Lothian AS a 'grassroots' member of the Alba party, let me send a message of solidarity to the erstwhile estranged 'grassroots' SNP people of good will who, for completely understandable reasons, are having a crisis of faith in their leadership. I speak for myself and for the majority of my co-activists in Alba when I say that a reunification process involving at the very least a common electoral strategy is an increasingly urgent necessity not only for an independence super-majority next year but equally in order to restore the 'brotherly love' that will silence the peals of laughter that have been echoing in the the corridors and bars of Westminster for too long. The Alba 'schism', I think most of you recognise now, was based on fundamental concerns relating to the priorities of the SNP leadership at that time in civic, judicial and civic matters. Many supporters no doubt shared some of those concerns but chose to bravely fight on within the ranks, hoping to maintain the post-2014 momentum generated by all of us. Those days, and the resentments and misunderstandings that proceeded from them, are past now and in the 'past they must remain' if we are to deliver a nation fit for our children and grandchildren. This is no time for huffs and hubris. That will require explicit, authentic and visible acts of forgiveness and reconciliation personally and collectively across the entire movement. I have made a start. It is not easy, but it is great to feel renewed camaraderie. We need SNP/Alba events formally and informally across this land, starting now. Alba speakers need to be invited to all SNP events and vice-versa to allow ice to melt sufficiently before next spring, and full participation and collaboration in all the Yes movement events ' under one banner' to reignite unity of purpose is essential. Those of you who agree with these sentiments, please make that abundantly clear to your departing or aspiring leadership, and perhaps through the course of these next 12 months we will once again 'be brithers a' for a' that' Dr Andrew Docherty Selkirk

Mother of Farage aide George Cottrell revealed as Reform UK's biggest donor
Mother of Farage aide George Cottrell revealed as Reform UK's biggest donor

The Guardian

time2 hours ago

  • The Guardian

Mother of Farage aide George Cottrell revealed as Reform UK's biggest donor

The biggest donor to Reform UK has been revealed as the mother of the party's unpaid aide and former fraudster George Cottrell. Fiona Cottrell, an aristocratic former girlfriend of King Charles in the 1970s, donated £250,000 in March, taking her total contributions up to £750,000 over the past year. The latest figures from the Electoral Commission show Reform failing to raise as much money as the Conservatives, despite its claims to be capturing its rival party's donors. The Tories raised £3.3m, Labour £2.3m, and Reform and the Liberal Democrats about £1.5m each, excluding public funds. However, the donations to Reform show that the party is attracting a wider breadth of donors than before Nigel Farage returned as leader, when it was largely kept afloat by loans from its then leader and now deputy, Richard Tice. Fiona Cottrell started giving money for the first time last year. Her son, George, is regularly at Farage's side, including at a party fundraiser earlier this year, on the election campaign trail and at the event to announce Reform's new chair on Tuesday. His role in the party has been described as an unpaid volunteer but he has also paid for trips by Farage to the US and Brussels. George Cottrell, a former head of fundraising for Ukip, spent eight months in prison in the US in 2016-17 after being accused of offering money-laundering services on the dark web in 2014 – before he worked in politics. He served time for a single count of wire fraud after 20 other charges were dropped as part of a plea deal. His business interests are largely in Montenegro, where he reportedly lost €20m (£16m) in a single poker game. He recently launched a polling and campaigns company in the UK called Geostrategy International. The other big donor to the party over the last quarter was a company called Tisun Investments, controlled by Tice. The company has given £613,000 since the beginning of the year in 33 tranches. Nick Candy, Reform's treasurer, had pledged to give about £1,000,000 but his donation was not in official filings published by the Electoral Commission on Tuesday. Farage said at a press conference earlier in the day that Candy had given £313,000, and that the party was 'extremely grateful' and looking forward to the remaining amount due in the next few months. Two former Conservative donors, Bassim Haidar and Mohamed Amersi, gave £25,000 each to attend Reform's fundraising event at Oswald's Club in Mayfair in January. The Conservatives raised a much larger sum of £3.3m during the quarter – excluding public funds, which took it above £5m. They received a £1m donation from Jeremy Elliott San, a video games tycoon. The party also received big chunks of cash from longstanding donors, including £250,000 from Flowidea, owned by the Swiss-born banker Sir Henry Angest, and £200,000 from Christopher Rea. It also accepted £50,000 from Neil Record, a businessman who chairs the climate denier lobby group Net Zero Watch, and who hosted the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, for a £14,000 week-long 'residential' with her family and political colleagues earlier this year. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion David Ross, a co-founder of Carphone Warehouse who once funded a holiday in Mustique for Boris Johnson, returned to the party as a big donor for the first time since 2022. He will take up a senior treasurer role in the autumn. Labour raised most of its money from trade unions, including Unite, Unison and GMB, but it was also left £350,000 as a bequest by Reginald Collins, a Labour member. Farage's political entity previously received much larger sums of money when it was the Brexit party, including about £10m to cover its 2019 election costs from the crypto and aviation fuel investor Christopher Harborne. Another company controlled by Tice, Britain Means Business, gave £500,000 to Reform before the 2024 election but this company was originally a cross-party campaign to support Brexit. In the months before the election, Reform also received £200,000 from the businessman Zia Yusuf, who became the party's new chair last year before resigning last week, and then returning two days later in a lesser role.

David Bull moves from warm-up act to centre stage as Reform UK chair
David Bull moves from warm-up act to centre stage as Reform UK chair

The Guardian

time2 hours ago

  • The Guardian

David Bull moves from warm-up act to centre stage as Reform UK chair

With his daytime TV teeth and perma-tan, David Bull is one of the UK politicians who most resembles the slightly unnerving Donald Trump acolytes who populate Fox News in the US. But rather than being an unyielding zealot, as the new chair of Reform UK he appears a safe choice. Bull is very much a politician. He was briefly on the Conservatives' 'A list' of candidates under David Cameron before shifting allegiances, and was a Brexit party MEP, as well as a Westminster candidate for the Brexit party and Reform. However, as someone who has spent the bulk of his career as a do-anything TV presenter, Bull will be expected to build on his existing position as what may be called the party's feelgood man, its liaison with members. Anyone who has attended a recent Reform rally or conference will have seen Bull in his now traditional role as the warm-up act, touring the venue with a camera and lights in tow, chatting easily to audience members before Nigel Farage takes to the stage. This is all in a day's work for someone whose 30-year broadcast résumé takes in everything from the BBC's Newsround and assorted CBBC programmes to Living TV's Most Haunted. Under Zia Yusuf, Reform's chair for 11 months, the role was more like that of CEO of a tech startup – putting in place structures, recruiting staff and sometimes knocking heads together. It was sufficiently gruelling that last week Yusuf briefly resigned from the party, an episode described jokingly by Farage as his 'bid for freedom'. As set out by Farage at a press event on Tuesday, the now returned Yusuf will focus on trying to find cost savings in Reform councils, while the party seeks a new head of operations and a new chief fundraiser. In this expanded structure, Bull's role will be, in the words of Yusuf at the same event, 'someone who is an incredible communicator, someone who is loved universally across the party, loved by the volunteers, someone who is going to, I think, do a better job than me at energising volunteers on the frontline'. Bull said: 'My role is about bringing the two parts of the party together – the voluntary party, the professional party. I want to act as a conduit between the two.' This is, in some ways, an unenviable job – an endless tour of Reform's 400-and-growing list of branches, geeing up a volunteer base who, while generally enthusiastic, have minimal say in how the party is run. But if anyone is up for the job it is Bull, despite his jokes to reporters on Tuesday that a permanent regime of pub-based meetings felt like a recipe for putting on weight. While he is generally billed as Dr David Bull, the 56-year-old has not practised medicine since his 20s, instead presenting or appearing on a long series of TV programmes, mainly in the UK but also in the US and New Zealand, with other ventures including a 1998 book for young people titled Cool and Celibate: Sex or No Sex. Most recently he has been a presenter on TalkTV, the News Corp-owned spin-off from Talk Radio, from which – according to Bull at the press conference – he handed in his notice on Tuesday, just before being announced as Yusuf's replacement. He is, however, more of a party insider than his Mr Entertainment public image might indicate. When the Brexit party was rebranded as Reform in 2021, and Farage stepped away from frontline politics, Bull spent three years as deputy leader under Richard Tice. So central is he to the origins of Reform, according to Bull's version of events on Tuesday, 'I think it's fair to say that Reform UK was founded in my kitchen in Suffolk'. There is, however, one quality to Bull that is perhaps most important of all: he has no obvious record of having fallen out with anyone in Reform, or even exchanging a particularly cross word. In a party that has already lost one MP amid contested rows about bullying, and (briefly) a chair following a dispute about the burqa, this could be a valuable skill.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store