Farage is “more Thatcherite” than Thatcher – McCluskey urges Labour to do more to take on Ukip

Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Unite, has said that Labour need to do more when it comes to addressing the threat posed by Ukip.

The FT (£) have reported that McCluskey said: “There has been a view in the Labour party for a while that, ‘let’s not worry about Ukip’. They may take votes from Labour but they’ll take seats from the Conservatives. So there hasn’t been that full-frontal attack that we’ve been arguing for.”

It is worth noting that the Labour leadership have established a task force to deal with the threat posed by Ukip, and in his Senate House speech last Thursday Miliband challenged Ukip, declaring “It is time we had a debate about where they really stand.”

However, McCluskey said there’s more to be done, explaining “Ed Miliband has got to be seen as being on people’s sides and he has got to talk to people in a way that they get the message. That’s one of the advantages that people say Farage has.”

McCluskey said that taking on Ukip should include emphasising Farage’s background as a former Tory supporter and City broker “Farage was a huge fan of Margaret Thatcher, is more Thatcherite than she was . . . We have to start exposing what Ukip’s policies are.”

McCluskey also came out and he firmly backed Miliband, saying that attacks on him were unfair: “It is now looking like bullying and the British people don’t like it when ordinary individuals are singled out for this type of unmerciful attack. It will backfire on them.”

He made it clear that Unite members will not accept any more austerity: “The level of the cuts, in my view, is unsustainable. If you are a cohesive society in a civilised 21st century country, then you cannot embark upon the type of cuts that cut away at the very fabric of the communities in which we all live. I’m certain there will be a backlash.”