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Opinion

Labour’s dishonesty is no less reprehensible than that of Farage

14 Jun 2025 6 minute read
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivering her Government’s spending review to MPs in the House of Commons. Photo House of Commons/PA Wire

Martin Shipton

If we expose one form of political dishonesty, we’re duty bound to apply the same standards across the board.

The rise of Reform UK provides an unedifying case study of how millions of people can be deceived into supporting an unworthy cause.

But understanding that does not exonerate from responsibility other political parties whose dishonesty and incompetence has helped create the Reform monster.

Nigel Farage has made a career out of exploiting people’s grievances. As an insurgent politician, he began by depicting the European Union as some kind of totalitarian superstate intent on imposing its malevolent will on the people of the UK, who according to his narrative had been uniquely singled out for mistreatment and exploitation.

This grotesque misrepresentation was allowed to gain currency by an onslaught of distorted information from Little Englander news outlets and later via social media. The spurious notion that the UK was forced by the EU to adopt laws that were against the interests of its citizens was easily exposed when its proponents were asked to identify the offending pieces of legislation. But those who were determined to believe the nonsense persisted in doing so.

Today we can appreciate the irony that it is Farage’s ally Donald Trump who is creating a dystopian hell of the kind he would have us believe the EU had in store for us.

Port Talbot

The Reform UK leader’s recent appearance at Port Talbot, at which he incoherently suggested that a Reform-led Welsh Government would be able to reopen the blast furnaces that were shut down by Tata last year, was a blatant exercise in political dishonesty by an opportunist without restraint.

While those with a knowledge of the steel industry realised he was mouthing nonsense, many were doubtless swept along by his nostalgia for an age when school leavers could walk into well-paid jobs for life.

Farage wants people to believe that he can magic up a fantasy past that they had given up as irretrievable. It just so happened that when the steelworks were functioning at full volume, and when the coal mines he’d also like to reopen were the main employer, trafficked migrants of a different ethnicity were not, as a rule, arriving in Britain on small boats.

This, of course, is a further cause for grievance among the demographic whose votes Farage will hope to garner at next year’s Senedd election in places where few, if any, of the boat people have actually pitched up.

His visit to Port Talbot also perhaps gave us a glimpse of the kind of Reform Senedd Member likely to be occupying the newly expanded hi-tech Siambr in Cardiff Bay after the 2026 election.

Anointment

Emulating their opportunistic Messiah were two formerly Independent councillors from Merthyr Tydfil who doubtless believe their future electoral success to be assured thanks to their anointment by Farage.

He was not embarrassed to introduce this unprepossessing and inarticulate pair, presumably regarding them with condescension as typical of the voters he is trying to woo.

It’s fair to say that it takes chutzpah of an exceptional degree for an avowed devotee of Margaret Thatcher who in the past has spoken with indifference of pit closures to con people into believing he’ll reopen mines in the south Wales Valleys.

It’s all nonsense, of course. He’s promising to improve public services while simultaneously cutting £150bn per year in public spending. When challenged, he spouts soundbites about ending spending on climate change initiatives and scrapping diversity posts.

Sooner or later Farage’s bubble will burst – as it has done before when he has fallen out with others in the previous parties he’s led. It’s already happening with Reform, although whether the party will implode before next year’s election is an open question.

Farage’s dishonesty is, of course, transparent to anyone who looks beyond the Facebook posts and slick videos. But that doesn’t excuse other parties from their acts of dishonesty.

Spending review

It’s approaching a year since Labour took power at Westminster. This week Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her Spending Review. We were told by both UK Labour and Welsh Labour that it represented a major boost for Wales’ economy and its citizens. First Minister Eluned Morgan and Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens resumed the sororal romance that had temporarily gone sour when Jo falsely claimed that Eluned was fine with the welfare cuts.

But it didn’t take long for the “on message” message to unravel. Analysis undertaken at Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre demonstrated that the growth in the Welsh Government’s budget was lower than it had been under the Tory UK government that was booted out of office last year.

Equally, the new allocation of rail funding was shown to be nowhere near enough to offset the loss to Wales through classifying HS2 as an “England and Wales” project. Joy had quickly been dampened when it became clear that the extra money was over a 10-year period.

So far as Wales is concerned, it is wrong to characterise the Spending Review as a triumph. Having sought to do so is an act of dishonesty on the part of Welsh Labour and its UK boss party.

It may be a subtler form of dishonesty than that engaged in by Nigel Farage and Reform, but that doesn’t make it less reprehensible.

Gloss

It’s understandable that parties will try to put the best gloss on statistics, and it’s easy to make big numbers sound impressive when they’re not contextualised. Most of us don’t have the numerical competence or fiscal knowledge to make competent judgments about changes in government spending.

I’m comfortable to leave the heavy lifting to the Fiscal Analysis Team at the Wales Governance Centre and believe them when they state that our public sector is heading for more tough times.

I don’t feel any better when I realise that Labour is spinning me a line.

I’d rather have political honesty than soft soap. That would be a sign of true leadership.

Keir Starmer, Jo Stevens and the rest of the UK Cabinet know that Brexit has been a disaster and that the best way to grow the economy would be to return to the single market. But they don’t want to say it because they fear the political consequences.

Politicians who fail to do the right thing and duck out of leadership have got us into the mess we’re in.

Ultimately their form of dishonesty puts them on the same moral level as Farage. Indeed, they’ve helped him attain the poll lead he currently enjoys.


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18 Comments
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Amir
Amir
1 month ago

I can relate to this level of dishonesty. I have also found between our local labour run Cardiif Council and 3 local Labour councillors that they collectively pushed for and got a massive business park approved in East Cardiff by the Labour run Senedd. Simply in the name of development for the sake of development. Jo Stevens herself told me, without the train station being built first, Rolls Royce will not take up any office space in Cardiff Parkway. Well the train station is not coming first. The local councillors were informed about this and I was told I was… Read more »

Welshman28
Welshman28
1 month ago
Reply to  Amir

NEVER believe a single word that comes out of Jo Stevens mouth. Look at her record before being in government and look at it since being in government it’s 100% worse. Please look at her on the BBC being INTERVIEWED it’s incredible how she is allowed to get away with anything

Steve D.
Steve D.
1 month ago

Because, for years, politicians have evaded direct answers to questions and often just told blatant lies people are sick of them. Any politician that comes across as on the level, honest and down to earth was bound to shine. Enter Farage, beer, cigar and pub, presumably the ordinary bloke. Due to this, no amount of dirt sticks, posh commodity broker – so what? Racist remarks – come on there’s just too many of those pesky immigrants, isn’t there? Blatant lies such as the EU jackboot giving the UK a kicking – just think of a prosperous UK unchained. However, and… Read more »

John Ellis
John Ellis
1 month ago

Absolutely superbly penetrating and analytical opinion piece, with which I entirely agree.

Simon Hobson
Simon Hobson
1 month ago

100% agree!

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 month ago

What a cesspit…BBC balance and the moral maze…why you should vote for remain by the back door…! Sometimes too subtle for our own good…

Have a read of the Olivet Discource: Matthew 24-25, Mark 13. Luke 21

Anianegwr
Anianegwr
1 month ago

Blairites are masters of dishonesty. Remember “spin”? Starmer & co simply carrying on where New Labour left off.

Today I read Mark Drakeford commenting on the Irish language. In support of his position he proclaimed that his Welshness was no bar to his Unionism. This man claims to be a socialist. The United Kingdom is an imperialist monarchy which serves the interests of capital.

Mark Drakeford’s position on the UK is dishonest, even if he is deceiving himself.

Last edited 1 month ago by Anianegwr
idris
idris
1 month ago

A spot on analysis … people in Wales deserve better. Sadly politics across the UK is filled – (with a small number of notable exceptions) – with career politicians who believe it is their right to be elected and are more concerned with keeping their seat than representing the people who put them there. Shallow grifters

Jeff
Jeff
1 month ago

I expect a functioning nation post labour (even when they fib).
I don’t expect one post farage.
There is a difference.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 month ago
Reply to  Jeff

Over the next eleven months we are going to see the pull of a black hole as we are steered closer and closer by actors in a masked ball, expect the villain of the piece to be the last to expose himself…carrots will be laid out too juicy to resist…

Anianegwr
Anianegwr
1 month ago
Reply to  Jeff

Surely we should strive for better than those two options?

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 month ago
Reply to  Anianegwr

A hint of false equivalence in there somewhere…the moral maze lingers on…

Jeff
Jeff
1 month ago
Reply to  Anianegwr

I noticed the same here at the GE. Don’t vote for them but don’t vote for them either.

Options are Cons, Lib, Greens. Libs at the moment offer a very good outlook. Reality is I have to vote to keep reform of Cons from power.

LynE
LynE
1 month ago

Reeves’ claim that the costs of employers’ NI increases would be fully covered for public sector employers has also turned out not to be true except in England. The Treasury can appeal all it likes to precedent for using the Barnett formula; it won’t make the claim universally true. Anyone might think they aren’t interested in next year’s elections. Or perhaps they think we’re all too dim to notice, or apportion responsibility

Undecided
Undecided
1 month ago

Good article. However, the most dishonest lot are us – the general public. We bleat about the lack of honesty amongst politicians; but if there was an honest politician, s/he would never get elected. That’s why they behave as they do because we all want to be told what we want to hear. We live in a fictional world where we think we can have everything and the cash to pay for it is unlimited. Thus we get what we deserve.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 month ago
Reply to  Undecided

Clark is wasting his time with Twmp, Chief attack dog Steven Miller is in charge and un-muzzled, he goes for neck and rips people to shreds…

but the you know that don’t you Clark, wash your feet and hands all you like before you come home…scrub, scrub, scrub, but this damned spot will never come off…

Last edited 1 month ago by Mab Meirion
Y Cymro
Y Cymro
1 month ago

I hold Labour and Reform UK in equal contempt. Both are bad news for Wales. They’ve got lying down to a fine art.

Welshman28
Welshman28
1 month ago

How people can honestly say they have not noticed the PURE dishonesty coming out of all of Labour if they don’t then they live in pure denial. Jo Stevens last week denying that the money from the chancellor was over 10 years even though the chancellor in parliament said it was over 10 years and Starmer cheering on that statement beside. The first minister is really now struggling has she appointed someone to rearrange her dishonesty in her statements it sure seems like it

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