THE left must not simply attack Reform leader Nigel Farage but offer a positive vision to fight back against the far right, the Morning Star Conference heard on Saturday.

Prominent Left MPs and anti-racism campaigners agreed the most persuasive argument against Reform UK is a message focused on funding social housing, investing in local communities and demanding higher taxes on corporations and the ultra-rich.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the crowd of trade unionists, activists and Morning Star supporters that campaigners must highlight their work “to bring about rent controls and the council houses that are so needed.”

Mr Corbyn said supporters will flock to those “working in the community to bring about cleaner air, better open spaces, keeping nurseries open, keeping Palantir out of the NHS.”

Julia Bard of the Jewish Socialists’ Group said: “Calling out and criticising the far right [is] much less persuasive than a positive campaign celebrating diverse communities, class solidarity and listening to people’s concerns.

“We need to defend all the things we have fought for, but our campaigning can’t just be defensive. We need a vision of a different way of organising human life and relationships.”

Mr Corbyn added that PM Sir Keir Starmer and his party have mainly levied personal attacks on the Reform leader, rather than “challenging what they are actually saying.”

Instead, the government has only “conceded ground to the far right.”

“[Refugees] are not the enemy. They are victims of war, human rights abuses, poverty, oppression and environmental disaster,” he said.

The first black woman elected to Parliament and longest-serving female MP, Diane Abbott, said a key factor in being able to effectively counter the far right is to “name the racism in our own movement.”

She said: “How many black leaders of big trade unions have we got today? The only one I could think of is the leader of [the National Education Union].”

In another session, Cuba’s ambassador to Britain, Ismara Vargas Walter, said the revolution in her country offered a positive example for socialists in countries facing a threat from the far right.

She said: “As we face today a new world disorder and rising fascism, we are reminded that when workers unite, another world is possible.

“Cubans know this truth from our own history. Our revolution proves that organised labour, allied with working people, can seize history and build socialism.”