Labour is being abandoned by trade union members as increasing numbers switch to supporting Nigel Farage and Reform UK. The Labour Party was originally set up to provide representation for the trade union movement in Parliament but new polling shows support for Sir Keir Starmer’s party plummeting.

And union leaders themselves admitted that “the working class have abandoned” Labour. The general secretaries of Unite and the GMB issued a warning after a poll by JL Partners showed Reform and Labour are now tied among union members, each with the support of 28%. But Labour used to be clearly in the lead – and support for Sir Keir’s party is down 20% since 2024.

Mr Farage told The Times: “This polling tells me exactly what I have seen on the campaign trail.

“Labour is no longer the party of the patriotic working class.

“That mantle now belongs to Reform, which is now the party of those who work hard but for whom the system doesn’t work.”

The Times reports that Sharon Graham, the leader of Unite, said the figures were “damning but not surprising”.

She said: “Labour has abandoned the working class, and the working class have abandoned Labour.

“Being prepared to cut the winter fuel allowance, slash benefits for the disabled and aid and abet a jobless transition for oil and gas workers at the same time workers and their families are struggling with a baked-in cost of living crisis is not the change people voted for.”

Gary Smith, general secretary of the GMB, said: “Reform are no friends of workers. They want to cancel hugely important union rights and are targeting the pensions of the low paid.

“But Labour has to show working-class people it can be on their side – as it did with last week’s essential help for our ceramics industry.

“Doubling down on ideologically driven energy policies that kill jobs and opportunities in our communities, without anything decent to replace them, will simply alienate more and more workers. That’s a recipe for electoral disaster.”