‘Reform Revealed’: Labour targets Farage in Runcorn with salvo of Facebook ads

Labour has begun rolling out a new wave of anti-Reform adverts in potential by-election seat Runcorn and across the North West, criticising the party for opposing workers’ rights legislation, views on the Ukraine war and supposed plans to “scrap the NHS”, LabourList can reveal.

A Facebook page called ‘Reform Revealed’, run by Labour North West, is currently running adverts with clips of Nigel Farage claiming the UK and other Western nations provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine and saying the UK should move to an “insurance-based system of healthcare”.

The page, running adverts paid for by the Labour Party, has also shared graphics pointing out that Reform’s MPs voted against the government’s employment rights bill, with the slogan “Reform UK are not for British workers”.

The page, created on January 23, has so far spent just over £1,000 on 14 different adverts, which are being targeted in a number of towns and cities in Cheshire and Merseyside.

These include Ashton, Preston, Ellesmere Port and Runcorn – where Labour faces a potential by-election against Reform UK following the sentencing of MP Mike Amesbury.

READ MORE: Blue Labour ads, Blue Labour ideas: Inside the fightback against Reform

One advert uses a short clip of the Reform UK leader in an interview with Nick Robinson for the BBC’s Panorama programme, discussing the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. In the clip, Farage said: “We [the West] provoked this war.”

Two other adverts link to an article from January by the Huffington Post, with the headline ‘Nigel Farage Accused Of Planning To ‘Decimate The NHS After He Reveals Shake-Up Plan’.

One of those adverts includes another clip of Nigel Farage speaking at a meeting in East Sussex from October 2012, where he said: “I think we’re going to have to move to an insurance-based system of healthcare. Frankly, I would feel more comfortable that my money would return value if I was able to do that through the marketplace of an insurance company than just us trustingly giving £100m a year to central government and expecting them to organise the healthcare service from cradle to grave for us.”

Another of the adverts, which asks those scrolling through social media if they could afford to pay for an emergency under Reform’s plans, was seen as many as 50,000 times, according to Facebook.

The Reform Revealed Facebook page is the latest effort from Labour to counter the threat of Reform, with the party’s general secretary promising campaign materials aimed directly at Farage’s party and teal-coloured ads spoofing Reform to promote the government’s record on migrant removals.

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