George Binette considers a recent survey that suggests Reform has as much support as Labour among affiliated unions.

The 31st May publication of a survey by polling firm JL Partners must have made for uncomfortable reading for many trade union activists as well as General Secretaries. The survey, commissioned by the Murdoch-owned Times and Sunday Times, suggested that Labour was on level pegging with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Both parties received support from 28% of just over 1,000 respondents from members of the eleven unions still affiliated to Labour. Of these, the vast majority are in just three of the eleven: the GMB, UNISON and Unite. The full list of Labour’s affiliated unions is: ASLEF, Community, the CWU, FBU, GMB, Musicians Union, National Union of Mineworkers, TSSA, UNISON, Unite and USDAW.

Even allowing for the usual health warnings about the margin for error – in the case of smaller unions such as ASLEF it’s extremely large – with such a modest sample size and any other queries about methodology, the findings are undeniably unsettling, if not altogether surprising. There is cold comfort for Labour, though, in that the level of support for the Party remains notably higher among union members than in the electorate at large with most opinion polls pointing to a figure at or below 20%, compared to some 34% voting Labour in the “loveless landslide” of July 2024.

And, of course, a substantial chunk of union members has long voted Tory. Margaret Thatcher’s ascent to power in 1979 came at a time when union density, exceeding 50%, was probably higher than at any point in British history. The available evidence from both TUC and Conservative Central Office analyses in the 1980s suggests that upwards of 30% of union members voted Tory at the 1983 and 1987 General Elections even against the backdrop of the hard-nosed Thatcherite anti-union offensive.

The survey also offered evidence that previous Labour support among trade unionists isn’t simply bleeding to Reform. The Greens’ share among participants appears to have more than doubled since the 2024 General Election from a modest 5% to around 12%, nearly level with the Tories. The 12% figure is, however, somewhat below what most opinion polls record for Green support, possibly reflecting higher levels of support among younger voters, who are less likely to be unionised.

Nonetheless, there is something deeply disturbing about the doubling of support for Farage’s company as political party. After all, Reform threatens a Trump-style policy of mass deportations as well as fomenting racial tension and routinely stoking other ‘culture wars,’ while also pledging to scrap the modest gains for workers and unions embodied in the Employment Rights Act 2025. Multiple factors, some long-standing, have combined to produce this apparent surge in Reform’s fortunes.

The social weight of unions has clearly declined dramatically since the 1970s, with little more than 22% of the workforce now unionised after a modest increase in union density last year. There is also evidence of considerable and worsening disengagement inside most unions, with participation slumping in elections for General Secretaries and national executives to below 5% in some cases. Much as I welcomed the election of Andrea Egan as UNISON’s General Secretary last autumn, the turnout of just 7% of UNISON members in the poll was an acutely painful reminder of the challenges she and her supporters face.

Of course, assuming that union membership somehow inoculates individuals from the lure of right-wing and even far-right ideas would be extraordinarily naïve, especially as most unions in Britain offer little, if any, sustained form of political education to activists, much less the membership at large. Leaving aside entirely justified unhappiness with the reality of the Starmer government, unions lack the capacity and often the will to push back against a generally right-wing bias in mainstream legacy media and the growing influence of social media as an alternative news and entertainment source.

In addition, many left-leaning union activists in branch officer roles lack facility time, while dealing with ever heavier caseloads representing individuals and sometimes facing bureaucratic interference from full-time union officials whose internal influence has grown resulting from the Thatcher-era and subsequent anti-union laws.

Even so, there is some cause for optimism about the prospects of halting and reversing the surge in support for Reform, whatever does or doesn’t happen in any Labour leadership contest. The reality of many union members working under now Reform-controlled councils may well serve as a wake-up call, though hardly a guarantee. A recent successful campaign by UNISON activists in conjunction with families and community groups forced Lancashire’s Reform-led county council to reverse its previous decision to close five care homes and several day centres. This is the sort of example that should inspire resistance elsewhere.

Such encouraging campaigns do not, however, absolve union leaderships of initiating and sustaining anti-racist initiatives that both expose Reform’s lies and challenge Labour government policies that accommodate to much of the far-right’s anti-migrant agenda.

George Binette is a former Camden UNISON branch secretary, vice-chair of Camden Trades Council and former Trade Union Liaison Officer of Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP.

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