Labour MPs whose seats are under threat from Reform UK have set up a pressure group that will urge Keir Starmer to take a tougher stance on migration and crime, amid growing concern about the rise of the rightwing populist party.
MPs drawn from the 89 constituencies where Reform came second at last year’s election have established an informal caucus focused on how to defeat Nigel Farage’s party, which came top in a major national poll for the first time this week.
Meanwhile, Downing Street has dispatched data and strategy experts to advise MPs on the kinds of messages that are resonating with Reform-minded voters, in a sign that MPs’ concerns are also shared by senior officials in the Labour party.
One MP involved in the discussions, which include dozens of MPs, said: “There is a major focus now on how to beat Reform. Various groups have been set up and we have been talking to Downing Street about what works. One of our main messages to the leadership is we need to do more on illegal migration especially.”
Another said the group wanted ministers to “shout louder” about what they were doing to tackle legal and illegal migration, including deporting tens of thousands of people back to their home countries.
A Labour party source said: “Groups of MPs meet all the time about lots of different issues. Labour MPs are rightly concerned about Nigel Farage’s plans to make people pay to access NHS services and will carry on taking the fight to them and other opposition parties in parliament and at the ballot box.”
Downing Street has been worried for months about the rise of Reform, but those concerns deepened this week after YouGov became the first major pollster to show the party ahead of Labour and the Conservatives. The poll on Monday showed Reform on 25%, with Labour on 24% and the Tories on 21%.
Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister’s chief of staff, has made it one of his top priorities to combat Reform’s appeal, telling MPs that Labour will be able to do so by showing tangible improvements to local public services.
Downing Street has in recent weeks sent campaign strategists and polling experts to brief MPs on where and how the party has been able to outperform its national poll rating in recent council byelections.
One MP said one of the main pieces of advice had been to identify projects local voters have long been asking for and to make sure they are delivered. McSweeney has told allies he helped defeat the British National party in east London 15 years ago in part by focusing on areas where previous local and national governments had promised infrastructure projects but failed to build them.
Matthew Faulding, the secretary of the parliamentary Labour party and a close ally of McSweeney, helped organise the briefings, according to those who attended. Some MPs, however, still want the party leadership to go further, especially when it comes to immigration.
One MP said they had been unimpressed recently by the response of ministers at recent briefings when asked about the possibility of processing asylum seeker claims offshore – something Starmer has said he is open to. “Even though the party policy is that we might do this, ministers have mainly been stressing how expensive it would be,” the person said.
Another said they had urged ministers to be more vocal about deportation flights.
Labour said in December it had deported almost 13,500 people since coming to power, and was on track to deliver the highest number of returns for five years. The statistics have caused alarm among human rights campaigners, but some MPs believe the party needs to be more vocal in publicising them.
One said: “We need to take tougher action on immigration, but we also need to shout louder about what we are doing.”
While Labour MPs discuss tactics to counter the threat of Reform, some are seeking lessons on combatting rightwing populists from outside the UK.
A small group is planning a trip to Germany in the coming weeks to find out what they can learn from the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which is expected to perform well in the country’s election later this month.
Reform is hoping to pick up seats at this year’s local elections, but is hoping for an even bigger result next year at the next set of local elections, and in the vote for the Welsh parliament. Some in Labour believe, however, that Reform’s poll rating will begin to fade ahead of national elections as scrutiny increases on their policy platform and the views of their candidates.
One minister said: “Reform are doing well, but then Ukip also did well in between national elections. That will change as soon as people start to pay attention to what they are actually saying.”
