Labour launches ads in Reform-style branding to boast about deportations | Labour

Labour has launched a series of adverts with Reform-style branding and messaging as the party seeks to combat the rise of the rightwing party.

The Facebook adverts include a series from a group called UK Migration Updates boasting about how many people the government has deported. The adverts do not display the Labour logo and are in a similar shade of blue to that used by Reform UK.

The party has also set up a Facebook group called Protect Britain’s Communities designed to highlight the government’s record on crime and antisocial behaviour. The page also does not display any Labour livery but sports a large union flag.

Labour sources say the adverts are part of a broader push to target Labour voters thinking about defecting to Reform, which polls suggest are a growing group.

One said: “The Tories and Reform offer nothing but weasel words, while this Labour government gets on with fixing the asylum system, which the Tories broke. We intend to let the public know about our plan for change through every available channel. It’s already seen thousands of people with no right to be here removed from Britain and tough new border security measures to reduce small boat crossings.”

However, the adverts have caused upset among some Labour MPs and activists, who believe the party could be making life harder for asylum seekers in the UK.

Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central, whose regional party set up the UK Migration Updates page, said: “I would caution the party against raising such community tensions when we know there are so many asylum seekers who have experienced persecution in their lives. I represent England’s only human rights city, where we uphold the dignity of all.”

Steve Valdez-Symonds, the refugee and migrant rights director at Amnesty International UK, said: “It is seriously worrying that the government seems set on repeating the mistakes of the past – under both Conservative and Labour leadership.

“For anyone wishing to see that every person’s human dignity is properly respected, and that we have a fair and efficient immigration and asylum system in the UK, public communication strategies such as this only make the situation worse.”

Reform has been surging in the polls for the past few weeks, with a YouGov poll putting the party ahead of both Labour and the Conservatives earlier this week.

While most of the rightwing party’s gains have come at the expense of the Tories, there is evidence it is beginning to eat into Labour’s vote share as well. The gains have caused alarm in Downing Street and among Labour MPs, with the party setting up groupings of MPs in Reform-facing seats to share campaign tips and polling information.

As part of the push to combat Reform, the UK Migration Updates Facebook advert, paid for by the Yorkshire and Humber Labour party, reads: “Breaking news: Labour hits five year high in migrant removals.”

Labour North West has used the advert on a Facebook page it has called Putting Runcorn First, which shows a large union flag but no Labour branding.

The Putting Communities First page looks similar, and has mainly posted tabloid stories about government action against low-level crime and antisocial behaviour.

Labour Together, a thinktank with strong links to Starmer and those around him, is also trying to work out how to reach Reform voters. Its chief executive, the former Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth, said: “It’s not about trying to ape Farage – that won’t work. But where we have a story to tell, like on the returns figures, Labour MPs should talking a lot about that.”