Overview
- TUC general secretary Paul Nowak urged Keir Starmer to focus relentlessly on living standards next year, warning disillusioned workers could shift to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
- Union-commissioned Survation polling found 21% skipping meals most days, 36% cutting back on heating most days, and 79% saying their finances are stagnant or worsening.
- Nowak said many union members currently vote Reform, while arguing a Farage-led government would threaten newly won workplace rights and push damaging deregulation.
- He praised Labour’s pre-Christmas workers’ rights law and the reversal of the two‑child benefit cap, but pressed for full and timely implementation rather than diluted measures.
- Nowak cautioned against cabinet infighting and noted union unease with Labour, as ministers signal a 2026 agenda that includes a rail fares freeze and a planned cut to energy bills.