Exclusive: Paul Nowak recognises frustration with Keir Starmer’s government but urges party not to be fatalistic
The UK’s most powerful union leader has said he is angry at the state of Labour and Keir Starmer’s government and warned that significant change is needed to prevent Reform UK from winning power.
In his first intervention as the battle rages over the future of the Labour leadership, the TUC’s general secretary, Paul Nowak, said it was clear there was an “overwhelming sense of frustration” with Starmer in a statement issued by Labour-affiliated trade unions last week that called for the prime minister to step down before the next election.
Nowak said the statement from the Labour unions was clear about the change that was now needed. “They don’t think he could lead Labour into the next election. I’m not going to cut across where our Labour unions are at, but whoever is in No 10, they’ve got to show working-class people that they are on their side.
“I think what you got from that statement was that overwhelming sense of frustration, 22 months out from that landslide election victory, which Labour won on the basis of a manifesto that had one word on the cover: ‘Change’. For a lot of people there hasn’t been any real change. They certainly haven’t felt it in their pockets. I get that sense of frustration, 100%.”
Nowak said the results of the elections on 7 May were devastating for Labour and showed the country was on course for a Reform government unless there was radical change. But he said there was still time for the party to recover in the three years before the next general election and Labour should not be “fatalistic”.
TUC polling in the aftermath of the elections found that fewer than one in five people think they are becoming better off, while nearly half (46%) think their personal finances are getting worse. The cost of living was the top issue for 65% of people, almost double the proportion who named immigration.
Nowak, whose union body had been a strong supporter of the Starmer government, said the state of the polls made him “angry, to be honest with you – some of the good stuff the government has done, the government isn’t shouting louder about it, isn’t getting credit for it,” he said.
“It makes me angry when you have self-inflicted mistakes like the Mandelson scandal and winter fuel payments. And it makes me angry that we are having to have this debate at a time when people are crying out for politicians to actually pony up and deliver real change.”
Nowak said the government should be much more robust in defending the new Employment Rights Act, as well as further action on wealth taxes and action to clean up politics, such as new restrictions on donations. “Show whose side you’re on and be vocal about whose side you’re on. Because at the moment, far too many people think that Nigel Farage is on their side.”
He said he would be keen to see the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, return to parliament by winning the Makerfield byelection, although he warned that any new prime minister would face the same significant challenges to prove Labour could deliver for working people.
“Andy is clearly a talented politician and one that has managed in Manchester to prove that he can deliver but he can tap into issues that matter to working-class people,” he said. “There’s no guarantee he’s going to win that byelection, but it would send a very clear message, I think.”
Nowak said he would like to see a further debate on whether the party’s economic agenda was too constrained by the fiscal rules and by the role of the Office for Budget Responsibility, which he called “a tool of Tory austerity”. Burnham has ruled out changing the fiscal rules should he become prime minister, although he has said his agenda would mean a far bigger role for public control of essential utilities.
Nowak said any leader “should be focused on what the outcomes are rather than necessarily sticking rigidly to rules set at a very different time. Nobody knew at the start of the year where we were going to be in terms of that illegal war on Iran.”
But he said it was “absolutely the right thing” to be looking at greater public control of services. “This is about being prepared to pick a fight with vested interests. It is bonkers that we ever got to a stage where our water industry was privatised. I think we’re the only country in the developed world that privatised water.”
The TUC has been a key driver for Labour to negotiate a far deeper relationship with the EU, including considering a customs union. But Nowak said it would not be right for Labour leadership candidates to open the door to rejoining.
“I don’t think that’s where the British public is at, at the moment, or that’s where our members are at,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a useful debate to have … because it would just be used by the right to cause even more division. And what we’re really focused on is policies that unite people across the left and right.”
Nowak said he did not want the Labour party to doubt that it could win the next election. “There’s a hell of a lot to play for – most importantly, if you’re interested in improving the lives of working people. I actually think that the vast majority of people in this country are decent and they’re fair-minded and they are better than Nigel Farage.”
Source: Guardian - World News
