Labour calls Reform ‘divisive’ despite its own election smear tactics

The Labour Party ran one of the most disgusting campaigns we’ve ever seen in the runup to the 2026 local elections. As such, the party really has lost any right to complain that its rivals are ‘divisive’. Despite this, that’s exactly what Labour politicians are now doing:

Bridget Phillipson says shes concerned about the divisive politics of Reform.

Starmer employed the language of Enoch Powell & Labour has spent the last few years scapegoating refugees. Rather than fighting Reforms divisive politics Lab has been leaning into it & legitimising it pic.twitter.com/v5AWczfwdC

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 10, 2026

Live by the sword

In the clip above, education secretary Phillipson says:

I am really concerned about the scale of division that we see in our country… We see it really sharply with the likes of Reform, where they did incredibly well in Sunderland. Credit to them. They’ve done incredibly well.

But where one of the candidates, who’s now a councillor, has been elected, he’s said that we should melt down Nigerians to fill in potholes.

This is the kind of racism and division that is so perilous.

It’s absolutely correct that people should call out Reform’s Glenn Gibbins. We called him out when he was a candidate, and we’ll continue to call him out now that he’s a councillor. The problem is that while we were slamming Reform’s racist candidates, Labour were calling out the Green Party over concocted antisemitism allegations and other nonsense.

Here are some of the Reform candidates Labour ignored in the local election campaign:

• Reform activist worries growth of Jewish population could ruin UK culture.
• Calls for Reform candidate who praised rape of Sikh women to face suspension.
• Media silent as antisemitic Reform activist spotted campaigning.
• Another Reform candidate praises Oswald Moseley — A rite of party initiation?
• Reform activist said ‘Hitler was right’.
• Reform welcomes ‘shoot the p*kis’ scandal ex-Tory.
• Reform UK accused of ‘nil vetting’ as another racist candidate exposed.
• Video emerges of Reform’s ‘Nazi salute’ candidate drink driving.

Instead of calling out the above, Labour was sending out non-Jewish ministers to suggest the Jewish Zack Polanski is an ‘antisemite’. The party also ran an attack campaign against ordinary Green candidates:

“exposed” and it’s our offical policy https://t.co/S2OaJ1NQMU

— cez (@cezthesocialist) May 6, 2026

Labour actually named and shamed a beloved charity leader who turned her life around to become an undoubtable force for good. This is the attack ad Labour put out about Carlotta Allum (the Labour account which published it has since deleted the post following immense public backlash):

As we reported:

Labour is correct that Carlotta Allum served time for smuggling drugs. What they leave out is that since she served time, she’s established a charity which offers the rehabilitative support that the British state fails to provide. And this is very important, isn’t it, because if we don’t rehabilitate people, they will continue to hurt themselves and others – ‘others’ which may include yourself or your loved ones.

You’ll be glad to know Allum won her seat despite the smears:

🚨 BREAKING: Carlotta Allum (who was defamed by Labour in a grotesque attack ad) has WON her election in Lambeth.

Allum won her seat alongside Serafina Spicer in the Brixton Windrush ward. pic.twitter.com/JzPluiLqyk

— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ (@LeftieStats) May 8, 2026

Labour — Missed opportunity

There was a time and place for Labour to call out how disgusting and racist Reform is, and that was before the local elections. They didn’t do that, but Polanski’s party did, and now people see the Greens as the anti-racist party.

Labour clearly want to reclaim that title, but it’s too late now. Oh, and let’s not forget this all began way before the 2026 local election campaign:

Left: Bridget Phillipson says that Labour are the only party to stand up to the rise of the right

Right: But Shabana Mahmood has gone so far to the right with asylum policies she's getting endorsed by the right

Keir Starmer could have done what Mark Carney did and speak… pic.twitter.com/u0G6iLt7no

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) May 10, 2026

This is the problem with a party having no values of its own. Labour politicians are trying to appeal to racists and anti-racists at the same time, and both groups have seen through them.

Featured image via BBC