Reform UK Opposes Workers' Rights

Reform UK presents itself as a party for ordinary working people — the left-behind, the overlooked, the hardworking majority. But when Parliament debated the most significant improvement to workers’ rights in a generation, every single Reform UK MP voted against it.

Voting Against the Employment Rights Bill

In October 2024, all Reform UK MPs voted against the Employment Rights Bill at its second reading in the House of Commons.¹ The bill — the most substantial piece of workers’ rights legislation in decades — included measures to:²

• Restrict the use of exploitative zero-hours contracts, ensuring workers get guaranteed hours after a qualifying period
• Strengthen protections against workplace harassment, including harassment by third parties such as customers
• Make it easier to join a trade union and take collective action
• Introduce a right to request flexible working from day one of employment
• Strengthen protections for pregnant workers and new parents
• Provide day-one rights to unfair dismissal protections

Reform’s MPs opposed all of this. Their vote was unambiguous: against better pay security, against harassment protections, against fairer workplaces.

The “Banter Ban” Smear

Reform’s hostility to the bill was not merely a matter of abstention. Nigel Farage and other Reform politicians actively campaigned against the harassment protection provisions, dismissing measures to prevent workers being subjected to bullying and abuse as a “banter ban”.³

This framing — that protection from harassment in the workplace is an assault on free speech — tells you a great deal about how Reform views the relationship between employers and employees. Workers complaining about being harassed are the problem. Bosses who permit it are not.

Zero-Hours Contracts: Reform’s Position

Zero-hours contracts — where workers have no guaranteed hours, no income security, and can be called in or turned away with no notice — have been widely criticised by trade unions, poverty charities, and economists as a tool of exploitation. They are disproportionately used against young people, women, and workers in low-paid sectors such as hospitality and social care.

Reform UK opposed restrictions on zero-hours contracts. Their manifesto and public statements framed flexibility as a feature, not a bug — ignoring the reality that “flexibility” in a zero-hours arrangement is almost always flexibility for the employer at the expense of the employee.

”Defying Their Supporters”

The TUC’s General Secretary Paul Nowak was blunt in his assessment. Speaking in April 2025, he said:

“The likes of Reform are defying their supporters by voting against improvements to workers’ rights at every stage.”⁴

He was right. Polling consistently shows that Reform voters, like most working people, support stronger employment protections, higher minimum wages, and better job security. Their representatives in Parliament voted against all of it.

The Bigger Picture

Reform’s economic philosophy is one of low regulation and low taxation — primarily for businesses and high earners. Their 2024 manifesto proposed cutting corporation tax, abolishing inheritance tax for estates under £2 million, and reducing oversight of employers. The workers they claim to represent barely feature in this picture.⁵

When Reform says it is on the side of working people, look at what it does in Parliament. The record is clear.

Footnotes

1. Employment Rights Bill: Second Reading vote — UK Parliament, 21 October 2024 ↩

2. Reform UK are no friend of the workers – here’s why — Hope not Hate, 10 April 2025 ↩

3. Employment rights bill ‘improves Labour’s favourability among voters’ — The Guardian, 28 April 2025 ↩

4. Employment rights bill ‘improves Labour’s favourability among voters’ — The Guardian, 28 April 2025 ↩

5. Reform UK election pledges: 11 key policies analysed — BBC News, 18 June 2024 ↩