Union membership increases in Reform-led councils
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 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.
Nigel Farage?
Weak on Putin. Threatens our NHS. #GMB25 pic.twitter.com/RL0AUW2aPq
— GMB Union (@GMB_union) June 8, 2025
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.'
GMB general secretary Gary Smith 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.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
12 minutes ago
- Reuters
North Korea will always stand with Russia, leader Kim tells Putin
SEOUL, June 12 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country will always stand with Moscow, state media reported on Thursday. In a message for Russia Day, a patriotic holiday celebrating Russia's independence, Kim called Putin his "dearest comrade" and praised their bilateral relations as a "genuine relationship between comrades-in-arms," KCNA reported. "It is an unshakable will of the government of the DPRK and of my own steadfastly to carry on the DPRK-Russia relations," Kim was quoted as saying. The DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. KCNA reported on Wednesday that Kim had sent congratulations on Russia Day to Putin. Earlier this year, Pyongyang for the first time confirmed that it had sent troops to fight for Russia in the war in Ukraine under orders from leader Kim Jong Un after months of silence.\
Daily Mirror
36 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Rachel Reeves pumps cash into NHS with 4m more tests and procedures to cut waits
The NHS and defence were big winners from the Chancellor's Spending Review as Rachel Reeves set out the Government's spending plans for the rest of the decade Rachel Reeves turned on the spending taps today with a £300billion package to renew Britain. The Chancellor said "destructive" Tory austerity had inflicted misery on ordinary Brits and damaged the economy, and vowed: "My choices are different". The NHS and defence were big winners from the Spending Review as Ms Reeves set out the Government's spending plans for the rest of the decade. The NHS was handed an extra £29billion-a-year, a 3% increase for day-to-day running costs over the next three years. Tonight, the Chancellor promised up to 4 million additional NHS tests and procedures would be delivered over the next five years to help slash waiting lists. New scanners, more community diagnostic centres, ambulances and Urgent Treatment Centres will be put in place, with increased capacity in community care to reduce pressure on hospitals. The Chancellor pumped an additional £190billion into day-to-day spending, with Government budgets set to grow by 2.3% per year across the period 2023/24 to 2028/29. And she announced £113billion for infrastructure projects, including £39billion for affordable homes over the next decade, £15.6billion for transport networks outside of London and £16.7billion for nuclear power. Some £30 billion will also be invested over the next five years in maintenance and repair of the crumbling NHS estate, with more than £5 billion dedicated to the most critical repairs. Keir Starmer told the Cabinet that it marked "the end of the first phase of this government, as we move to a new phase that delivers on the promise of change for working people". In a statement to MPs, Ms Reeves said her plans were a far cry from Tory austerity, where public spending was cut by 2.9% per year in 2010. She said: "Let's be clear, austerity was a destructive choice for the fabric of our society. And it was a destructive choice for our economy too, choking off investment and demand, creating a lost decade for growth, wages and living standards." She added: "My choices are different. My choices are Labour choices. The choices in this spending review are possible only because of my commitment to economic stability and the decisions that this Government has made." Ms Reeves said Labour was "renewing Britain", adding: 'I know that too many people in too many parts of our country are yet to feel it. This Government's task, my task as chancellor, and the purpose of this spending review is to change that, to ensure that renewal is felt in people's everyday lives, in their jobs and on their high streets." Defence spending will hit 2.6% of GDP by 2027 - including cash for intelligence - made up by a raid on the foreign aid budget. But no details were given on when the Prime Minister will meet his ambition of hiking it to 3%. A massive £86billion will be spent on the science and technology sector by the end of this Parliament, including funding research into drug treatments. The Chancellor also promised to set out plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), a scheme to improve rail services between Liverpool and Leeds. There was also £3.5 billion more funding for the TransPennine Route Upgrade between York and Manchester, as well as £445million for rail in Wales over the next 10 years, and funding for a new line between Oxford and Cambridge. Schools will see their budgets swell by £2 billion, with per pupil funding to grow by 1.1% a year. Some £2.3 billion per year will go to fixing "crumbling classrooms" and £2.4 billion per year to rebuild 500 schools. But the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that paying for an expansion of free school meals to another 500,000 children whose families claim Universal Credit next year means a real terms freeze to school funding. Labour will stop housing asylum seekers in hotels by the end of this Parliament, saving the taxpayer £1billion a year. But policing is expected to feel the squeeze as the Home Office grapples with cuts exceeding the asylum savings. The National Police Chiefs' Council warned a projected £1.2 billion shortfall in funding is expected to grow, leaving forces facing further cuts. There will also be £7 billion to fund 14,000 new prison places and up to £700 million per year for probation reforms. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Transport and Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are all in line for real-terms cuts. Much of the funding has been front-loaded to the start of this Parliament, which means the average increase falls to around 1.5% from 2025-26. Stephen Millard, interim director of the NIESR economic research institute, said: "The Chancellor has yet again said that her fiscal rules are 'non-negotiable'. But, given the small amount of headroom at the time of the spring statement and the increases in spending announced since then, it is now almost inevitable that if she is to keep to her fiscal rules, she will have to raise taxes in the autumn budget." Health leaders said the cash boost for the NHS would not guarantee waiting time targets can be met. Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, warned that "difficult decisions will still need to be made as this additional £29 billion won't be enough to cover the increasing cost of new treatments, with staff pay likely to account for a large proportion of it".
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Buy-now-pay-later Reeves is bribing voters with baubles as Labour's debt clock racks up and up
GOODBYE the Iron Chancellor, hello the Klarna Chancellor. Rachel Reeves' spending splurge yesterday may have some eye-catching purchases. But it's buy now, pay later as Labour racked up the debt even further. 3 You could hear Nigel Farage breathing down the neck of her Spending Review that saw the Treasury shovel billions out of the door on the never never. Clearly designed to see cranes in the sky and spades in the (electoral battle) ground, Reeves stuck another £113billion on the borrowing tab to try to see off the threat of Reform in the next crucial three years ahead of the election. There was £39billion for affordable homes and another £14billion for the first nuclear power station to be built in a generation. The £7billion prison-building project should be welcomed, as long as the judges actually fill them with violent thugs rather than online mums publishing stupid tweets. Bribe and cajole But voters will be wary of the £16billion in transport upgrades outside of the South East — what you might call levelling up — having heard these promises before, only to see them paused, scrapped and delayed again and again. And let's hope none of the above projects over-run on their budget — like pretty much every other major government infrastructure initiative has in the past 40 years. I couldn't help thinking Reeves' speech yesterday was the most she had ever sounded like Gordon Brown, torturing a dreary mantra that these were 'Labour choices' as she sought to bribe and cajole voters with baubles while the debt clock racked up and up. But we all know what happened to Brown when the music stopped . . . While the bond markets were steady last night after Donald Trump struck a trade deal with China, these things can go south very quickly, so it's far from clear if this spending gamble will pay off for Reeves. As former Cabinet Secretary Simon Case told The Sun this week: 'The nation's credit card is maxed out.' Top 5 takeaways from Spending review He warned: 'Just like when you're at home and you've got your credit card or your mortgage, you have to pay for that debt. 'So the debt interest that we're paying on the nation's credit card, if you actually put it out like it was a government department, it would be one of the biggest government departments by spending. 'It's taking up huge amounts of our money.' The Institute for Fiscal Studies put the extra borrowing Reeves has undertaken since taking over at No11 at £140billion, with more than £105billion of taxpayers' cash alone this year going on interest payments. To tackle this, Case directly urged Reeves this week to 'put the squeeze' on public spending or face a debt crisis and a lack of confidence in the UK's financial system with horrific effects. 3 So were there any cuts, or restraint of any real note yesterday? Of course there was the obligatory three per cent rise in NHS spending over the next three years as more pound notes poured into that seemingly indeterminable black hole. While NHS chiefs were crowing yesterday that they had 'done well' out of the settlement, they were already pumping out mood music that it might not be enough. Yet by 2029, the NHS annual budget will be just short of a quarter of a trillion pounds a year at £226billion. When will it ever be enough? And where are the promised reforms to the system that would rid us of this endless gimme, gimme, gimme cycle? Also, £9billon in efficiency savings for the NHS were proposed yesterday, with scarce details on the how, but already experts are pouring cold water on even that small sum being hit. Labour promised to get a grip on the NHS, and warned that more money would not be the answer. Another election promise that has turned to dust. As has Labour's pledge to end the use of migrant hotels within 12 months of taking power. That has now been downgraded to 'by the end of this Parliament' — at a cost of nearly £5billion until then. Smoke and mirrors Even by 2029, the Government will still be spending more than £2billion a year accommodating visitors, just not in hotels. So behind the smoke and mirrors of Reeves' speech to MPs, that isn't really a cut. And the continued costs of the heaving asylum bill dwarfs any of the departmental savings unveiled yesterday. Reeves was keen to stress no return to the days of austerity, and her tinkering on Whitehall budgets was about the only part of her speech yesterday that matched her rhetoric. The £1.5billion to be shaved off total departmental spending in the next three years pales in comparison to her extra spending elsewhere. Just over £14billion being spent this year, down to £12.6billion in three years' time. Hardly putting on the squeeze. GDP at 2.7trillion . . . Let's hope the Chancellor doesn't need a major rainy day fund anytime soon, or she really will be the new Gordon Brown.
