FIRE Brigades Union president Ian Murray warned yesterday that a Reform government would spell “disaster” for workers and defended the union’s affiliation to Labour.

Addressing the FBU conference in Coventry, Mr Murray said Reform in office “would pose a serious threat to the ability of unions to represent their members — in fact, I think Reform are a serious threat to the very existence of trade unions.

“They voted against every single piece of legislation that would improve the lives of the working class and they’re very clear where they stand on public-sector pensions.” Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice has made cutting public-sector pensions, including those of firefighters, a signature policy.

The FBU will debate its continued affiliation to Labour today. The union disaffiliated from Labour in 2004 because of the Blair government’s attacks on firefighter pay and conditions, but reaffiliated while Jeremy Corbyn led the party.

Mr Murray made it clear he backs continued affiliation, praising the passage of the Employment Rights Act — “the biggest improvement in workers’ rights we have seen in a generation” — and the new Firefighters Concordat on Health and Wellbeing announced by Health Secretary Wes Streeting at the FBU’s first health and safety summit last month, which provides for regular health checks for firefighters in recognition of the unique risks they face as well as funding to research the impact of these hazards on long-term health.

“The Labour Party have made a lot of decisions that many of us in this room and in the rest of the UK are not happy with — there needs to be change.

“They have to truly represent the working class of this country and they’d better get on with that quick because the working class are looking for alternatives.” 

But the FBU’s input through Labour’s NEC and Labour Unions ensured direct access to the Prime Minister and a channel to press for policies benefiting firefighters, he said.

Mr Murray saluted the Oxfordshire firefighters whose public campaign and threat of strike action stopped proposed cuts to the fire service in the county, and also addressed the international situation, denouncing the “wave of craziness” from Washington including its illegal wars and piratical kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.