A trade union boss has been blasted after trying to link Nigel Farage to white supremacists in the United States.
Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), grouped Mr Farage with both Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe and ex-English Defence League activist Tommy Robinson, describing them as being part of a “nasty politics”.
Speaking at the TUC conference, Mr Nowak said: “There is a direct political thread, a nasty politics, that links Nigel Farage, Rupert Lowe and Tommy Robinson with Donald Trump, Maga and the US white supremacist movement.”
He said such politics began with “demonising migrants” and “intimidating” people by flag-flying but ended with “proto-fascist mobs roaming our streets in balaclavas”.
The trade union boss appeared to be referencing hundreds of masked men who descended on Dover last week.
Mr Farage condemned the protests at the time, describing them as “disgusting” and “horrible” in an interview with GB News.
Reform UK’s party chairman Lee Anderson called Mr Nowak’s comments a “desperate outburst”, pointing out the trade union chief receives a six-figure salary while his union members are “on minimum wage”.
Speaking to GB News, the Ashfield MP said: “Paul Nowak is a political dinosaur and clearly petrified that a large and growing number of his own members are abandoning Labour and voting for Reform. This desperate outburst shows just how rattled and out of touch he is.
“This is a man who receives a salary of nearly £170,000 a year which is paid for by members on minimum wage. He’s literally robbing the poor to pay himself. I’ll take no lessons from him.”
Paul Nowak has been described as a ‘political dinosaur’ following his comments linking Nigel Farage to ‘US white supremacists’
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Mr Nowak has been TUC’s General Secretary since December 2022.
The organisation represents most unionised workers in England and Wales, with roughly 5.3 million members.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner also weighed in on the donation row at the TUC conference.
Speaking from the conference in Brighton, she vowed Labour will “defend democracy from any foreign dictator or fascist oligarch”.
Speaking from Brighton at the Trades Union Congress conference, the House Secretary said: “Nigel Farage’s sugar daddies made their money in crypto, but there’s nothing cryptic about their motives.
“They know full well that a Reform government will act in their interests, not the public interest.
Mr Farage has threatened trade union donations would be banned in retaliation to Labour’s crackdown if in Government
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“Now, when these Reform donors say they want nothing, they mean it: no workers’ rights, no renters’ rights, no social protections, no safety net, no regulation, nothing to stand in their way.”
“How dare they try to compare money from a couple of crypto billionaires to union members’ subscriptions – the most highly regulated political funding we can have.
“It couldn’t be more different from a couple of offshore billionaires trying to buy our democracy.”
She continued: “So let me be clear: we will defend our democracy and society from any foreign dictator or fascist oligarch who seeks to divide our country and buy our politics. But we will never undermine the rights of working people to organise collectively and democratically.”
During his speech today, Mr Nowak also addressed Reform’s record-breaking £72million donation from two billionaires, describing it as a “crisis for our democracy”.
He said: “Tell me, why is it that two crypto billionaires have donated £72 million to Reform in just two days? The evidence is clear: Reform UK is a party for sale, Nigel Farage is a politician for sale and, given half the chance, they’d sell our country down the river.
“This is a crisis for our democracy. We cannot allow our political system to be captured by corporate interests. And, congress, let no-one tell you there is any similarity between care workers chipping in a few quid a year through their union and a party bought and paid for by billionaires.”
Since the announcement of the two donations, Labour has turned its attention to its Representation of the People Bill, which aims to reform political contributions, putting the multi-million pound payments – from crypto billionaires Ben Delo and Christopher Harbourne – potentially at risk.
Proposed changes in the bill include a £100,000 annual cap on donations from “overseas contributors” and banning payments in the form of cryptoassets.
Labour has threatened to retroactively apply the proposed legislation, which would mean Reform would potentially have to return the money.
Mr Farage retorted by taking aim at trade union donations, telling the BBC today: “There is talk of them retrospectively declaring the donations illegal.
“Well, that simply cannot be. If a Government was allowed to do this, you know what would happen?
“There’d be a response the other way. We, or the Conservatives, would say, right, if you’re going to stop legitimate donors like this, we will then say to the trade unions, you can’t give money.
“And if you do that, you have collapsed the whole political system.”
Mr Farage doubled down on his sentiment this afternoon, threatening in a statement that a Reform Government would ban trade union donations.
He said: “Unite Alone have given the Labour Party over £50million over the course of the last few years.
“And what have they got? They’ve got the Employment Rights Act. What have the unions got? Big pay rises for train drivers.
“If anybody is giving money to do political bidding, it’s the trade unions.
“So I would just warn the trade unions and the Labour Party. If you try and ban our donors, we in government would certainly ban yours. But I don’t want to go down that route, as I say, any attempt, any attempt with this Government.
“And by the way, a Government that already has cancelled elections, a Government that is gerrymandering to get 16-year-olds the vote because they think it’ll work in their favour.
“Any attempt by this Government to retrospectively change the law will be fought by us with all the might we have.”