The TUC General Secretary has condemned Nigel Farage's by-election as a waste of taxpayers' money and contrasted his conduct with the work of the new Prime Minister.
Paul Nowak, writing for the TUC, said Farage's campaign in Clacton was a farce, noting that Count Binface, an intergalactic space warrior with a bin on his head, received more than one in four votes over Reform's leader.
Nowak pointed out that the by-election was unnecessary and imposed on Clacton by its often absent MP. He said Farage triggered the poll to avoid a Parliamentary standards investigation into his finances.
A costly and avoidable poll
The by-election cost £250,000 of taxpayers' money, and Nowak said Farage is now back where he started, facing a Parliamentary standards investigation.
Nowak recalled that after saying he needed "a million a year" to cover lost earnings, Farage was "gifted" £5 million by a crypto tycoon. The gift was reported to the National Crime Agency, and Parliament's standards watchdog is investigating whether Farage broke the House of Commons code of conduct.
If found to have broken the rules, Clacton could face yet another by-election, a fact Farage knew from the start, Nowak said.
Burnham's contrast
Nowak contrasted Farage's summer spent arguing with a bin to Andy Burnham's work cutting energy bills, capping bus fares, and reducing business rates for pubs and clubs.
He said Burnham has pledged to fix social care, end rough sleeping, and support young people back into work, adding that the new PM should go further by taxing big banks to bring down household energy bills.
Zero hours and reindustrialisation
Nowak also defended plans to ban exploitative zero hours contracts, saying bad bosses will no longer be able to cancel shifts without compensation, and workers will have a right to guaranteed shifts.
He noted that one in three insecure workers face a financial hit of £3,000 a year from cancelled shifts, and that most businesses already do right by their staff.
Finally, Nowak highlighted a project by Heidelberg Materials in North Wales to capture and store carbon from cement production, calling it an example of good, secure, unionised jobs in the green transition.
