Mick Lynch humiliates Reform candidate in fiery Newsnight clash
"They're all despicable as far as I'm concerned and working class people should turn away from them."
The former RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has a reputation for effective broadcast appearances – especially when taking down hapless interviews and unprepared right wing politicians. His appearance on BBC Newsnight on June 8 was a classic example of this.
Lynch was on the programme to discuss the Makerfield by-election and the Labour leadership crisis. He appeared alongside Reform UK’s London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham.
On the show, Lynch was asked about the rise in support for Reform and for the even more extreme right wing party Restore.
He responded: “I don’t think it’s about them, I think it’s about Labour getting their platform together. What happens in the right wing factions is up to them. You’ve got the hard right, militant right in Reform and the ultra-right under the other party.
“Reform’s going to find that harder because as they try to appeal to the centre to consolidate their vote, they’re going to have to try to stretch their blanket to cover these ultra-right nationalists that are represented by Rupert Lowe.”
Lynch then laid into the politics of Reform and Restore, branding them ‘despicable’.
He said: “They’re all despicable as far as I’m concerned and working class people should turn away from them. They should turn away from the hatred that is being spread.”
Visibly irritated, Cunningham interjected to ask Lynch ‘what hatred is being spread’?
He responded simply: “Nigel Farage has spent his time spreading hatred in this country. Your party believes in mass deportations of people living in this country.”
Cunningham again interjected, claiming that Reform only wanted to deport ‘illegal migrants’.
In response, Lynch corrected Cunningham on what her party’s own policy actually is.
He said: “No, you’ve said of people that are not illegal migrants – of any economic migrant that is getting the benefit of the welfare system. So if you get unemployed as an immigrant you’re going to get deported.”
Once again, Cunningham sought to interrupt Lynch. This time she asked him “do you believe in this fundamental principle that social housing and benefits should be fore the British people?”
Refusing to be drawn on her attempt to divide people in this way, Lynch said: “The British people includes people that live here that have come from abroad. They are the British people!”
Cunningham’s final question for Lynch was “Do you believe that British trade [unionists] who work hard should be paying for people who have just arrived to live in social housing?”
In his response, Lynch perfectly summed up the difference between the politics of solidarity that the trade union movement embodies and the politics of division peddled by Reform.
He said: “What we believe in is we pay for each other through a fair tax system, where wealth is distributed properly so that all people can advance. You believe in isolating people and taking advantage of poverty so that you can divide them and make your friends even richer.”
Later in his appearance, Lynch added: “Reform will cut all of those things. You’ll cut our NHS, you’ll privatise it and you will get rid of the Employment Rights Act because you have called us – trade unionists – a cancer in this society.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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