TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak has lashed out at ‘fake patriot’ Nigel Farage, accusing him of sowing division for political gain as he urged Labour to take the fight to Reform
Nigel Farage is a “false patriot” who doesn’t care about working class Brits, a senior union leader has said.
TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak branded the Reform leader a “snake oil salesman” and accused him of sowing division for political gain.
He urged Labour to take the fight to Mr Farage, and to show it’s on the side of ordinary people.
Mr Nowak told the Mirror: “Let’s be clear about Farage. He’s a complete political snake oil salesman. He sells false cures to the big problems that face parts of our country.”
He took aim at Reform’s attempts to claim Britain is broken, saying: “This is a classic example of why Farage is a false patriot.
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“At the same time that he wraps himself in the flag, he constantly talks down Britain, he constantly talks down working people in this country.”
The TUC leader said Reform had repeatedly voted against greater protections for workers in the Employment Rights Bill – and accused him of wanting to replace the NHS with a US-style health insurance model.
Mr Farage has previously spoken about looking at how the NHS is funded, but has said it would stay free at the point of use.
Mr Nowak, whose grandad Josef came to Britain from Poland to work as an aircraft engineer during the Second World War, said the debate on immigration had become “depressing and dangerous”.
He said: “Farage, he is sowing division in our communities. He is constantly looking for scapegoats. He’s happy to rile up those divisions for his own political agenda.
“He’s a complete and utter opportunist, and I think the government’s got to be relentlessly focused on demonstrating ‘We’re the people on the side of working class communities’.”
Mr Nowak added: “I think most of the British public are instinctively fair minded and decent, and I think they will be really worried about their neighbours feeling threatened and worried and harassed by the likes of Farage stoking it up.”
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