‘Labour’s personal attacks on Farage will backfire’

In the last couple of days, the Labour Party and the Conservatives have both posted attack ads aimed at Nigel Farage and Reform UK, but with very different strategies. The Tories have got the better of the two.

On Sunday Labour launched an aggressive personal attack on Nigel Farage, highlighting the Reform leader’s praise for Andrew Tate, the influencer who has been widely condemned for misogynistic views and faces serious criminal charges.

Labour’s ad seeks to tie Farage to Tate’s appalling comments about women, making it clear that he’s associated with a toxic and misogynistic figure. But this approach of trying to tarnish the personal judgment or historical opinions of populist leaders has been proven to fail.

Farage’s character is set in stone in Reform curious voters’ minds. Whether it’s from his decades on the frontline of national politics or his appearance on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, voters feel like they know him. There is almost nothing new you could introduce in an advert about Farage’s character now that is going to change perceptions.

Making attacks on his character, instead of weakening him, actually reinforces the idea that “the establishment” is out to silence him.

Ads like the one posted by Labour on Sunday are inadvertently conveying Farage’s core outsider narrative.

The Conservatives have taken a better approach. Their ad points out that Reform promised a deportation plan 115 days ago and still hasn’t delivered.

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It’s possible Labour isn’t trying to peel away Reform voters at all. Their strategy may be aimed at Labour voters tempted by the Greens, Lib Dems or Your Party. In that case, highlighting Farage’s association with Andrew Tate could be designed to energise progressive voters and remind them of the stakes.

But if that’s the strategy, there’s a lot more to do than running negative ads about Farage. Criticising him is easy and will feel good, but it achieves very little. Building bridges to disaffected progressive voters through clear, credible policy offers is much more difficult but is a much more effective use of resources.

A social media ad years out from a general election is obviously almost completely insignificant on its own, but it’s one of many recent examples which indicate that Labour haven’t got, or isn’t sticking to, an effective strategy for the next general election. Labour will need to win with progressives and hold on to Reform-curious voters. Hammering Farage on character or judgment issues will help with neither.