Defeat Farage and crew with socialist policies

Brian Smith

There is a clear need to challenge the divisive right-wing policies of Reform UK at the ballot box.
The failures of both Labour and the SNP to offer any real solutions to the problems faced by working class communities, and increasingly middle class ones too, has created a political space which the millionaire Nigel Farage has sought to exploit through Reform UK and it’s narrow nationalist, right-wing rhetoric.

Tens of millions of people across the UK can see that the current capitalist system only really works for the billionaires and the big corporations – a tiny elite who have never had it so good.

Labour and the SNP back this obscene profit driven economic system and implement the pain on public services demanded by their stock market pals. They have done little to challenge the cost of living crisis faced by millions of workers despite the fact that there are now more billionaires than ever.

The majority of people know that the current capitalist system is rigged against them. At the ballot box this sees many “hold their nose” and vote for that particular election’s least worst option (as happened in July 2024 with Labour) or just not voting at all (40% did not vote in July 2024, the second highest since 1885).

In July 2024, others voted Reform UK, with Farage’s crew securing 14% of the UK vote (and 5 MPs) and 7% in Scotland. There is the possibility of Reform UK winning seats in Scottish Parliament in 2026 under that election’s proportional representation system.

Reform UK pose as anti-establishment by pointing out that government institutions like the civil service and criminal justice system are dominated by an elite from similar privileged backgrounds.

Yet most of Reform UK’s leadership are just that – extremely wealthy and privately educated. They claim to be for better public services yet support more privatisation of hospitals and schools, abolishing inheritance tax and cutting higher rate tax.

They claim to be on the side of workers but call for employers to have more powers to sack staff through an extension of “fire and re-hire” rules, and for cuts in workplace health and safety protections.

A central plank of Reform UK’s approach is of course to blame the genuine pressures on public services, lack of affordable social housing, cuts to community facilities and the many other horrors of free, market capitalism that working class communities face on immigrants and asylum seekers.

no to scapegoating

The answer to these economic issues is not scapegoating and racism but socialist policies that use the wealth hoarded by the billionaires and big business to invest in health, education, housing and local communities.

The money and resources are there to transform the lives of all working class families, it’s the political will that is absent. Alongside this public investment, we need an asylum system that offers safe routes for those fleeing persecution and war, and the ending of racist immigration laws.

We also require internationalist socialist policies such as the trade union rate for the job for all workers that counter rather than promote imperialism, war and ethnic / religious nationalism.

Reform UK defend the existing economic system, that is why some capitalists and media commentators support them. But they are not the answer for working class people. Indeed, Reform UK seek to undermine the common experiences of all workers by exploiting the different racial, national and religious identities that exist within the working class.

Socialists and trade unionists respect these various identities, whilst at the same time pointing out that working class unity and trade union organisation are required to deliver the socialist policies needed to improve the lives of all, including ending all forms of oppression.

Labour and the SNP are also not the answer, as they have both demonstrated in recent times at local and national government levels. Therefore, it is vital that a socialist and trade union alternative, including working class fighters standing as candidates in elections, is built.

The Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, in which Socialist Party Scotland plays a central role, has stood consistently in recent local and national elections. That work needs to be built on, alongside other socialists and trade unionists in Scotland.

We need a new workers’ party with a radical manifesto of wealth redistribution, investment in public services and housing, democratic public ownership of the major sectors of the economy and opposition to war, racism and oppression.

Ideally, the trade union movement in Scotland should call a conference to discuss and agree such a manifesto, and to promote a socialist alternative in any council or parliament by-elections in 2025. This could be a step towards building a bigger socialist challenge in the Scottish Parliament elections in 2026.