Lib Dem’s: Real Opposition to Reform UK Means Listening

 

To beat Reform UK, we must offer more than outrage. We must offer answers, empathy, and a future worth believing in.

By Sean Ash 

When you speak to Reform UK supporters, you quickly realise something that mainstream parties too often ignore. These are not all hateful people. Yes, there are racists. Yes, there are bigots. But not all of them are. Many are angry, many are hurting, and many feel abandoned. That anger comes from a place of deep frustration, not always from prejudice. 

And just as we rightly ask people not to judge all refugees as one thing, we should apply that same principle here. If we believe in fairness, it must run both ways. People deserve to be heard for who they are, not labelled because of who they vote for.

They see migrants being housed and wonder why their own children are still living at home well into their thirties. They hear about support for refugees and ask, what about our veterans sleeping on the streets? They wait ten hours in A&E and start to feel like no one in power is fighting for them. 

When they raise these questions, Reform UK listens. That is why they are gaining ground. Not because they offer good solutions, but because they offer attention, and in a country where so many feel abandoned, attention feels like loyalty.

But here is the danger. Reform does not fix the pain. They weaponise it. They offer scapegoats, not strategies. They do not build, they blame. When someone is drowning, the last thing they need is someone pointing at another swimmer and shouting, “They do not belong here.” They need someone who throws out a lifeline. That is where the Liberal Democrats must step up.

We must begin by acknowledging the pain, without feeding the hate. Yes, people are angry. And yes, their anger has a cause. But that cause is not a family fleeing war, or a child born in another country. The real betrayal came from successive governments who sold off social housing, cut public services, and allowed billionaires to hoard wealth while communities crumbled. The system has failed us all, but especially those who had the least to begin with.

We need to stop allowing the debate to be framed as “us versus them.” It is not. It is all of us versus injustice. It is people from Wigan to Wolverhampton, from Bradford to Basingstoke, trying to survive under a system that pits neighbour against neighbour. That is not migration. That is manipulation.

The Liberal Democrats should be front and centre saying, “We will build homes. We will support our soldiers. We will invest in communities that have been left behind.” Not to appease xenophobia, but to remove the need for it. Because once the basics are in place, housing, healthcare, opportunity, people stop looking for enemies and start looking for hope.

Our policies should be bold. We should commit to building social homes. We should guarantee that no veteran leaves service without a roof, a job pathway, and mental health support. We should bring back trust in the NHS by ending the postcode lottery in care and reducing A&E waiting times through localised investment and staffing.

And yes, we must also support integration, not segregation. That means funding local initiatives that bring people together, shared spaces, youth programmes, faith-based community events. Remove two tiered policing in favour of a fairer justice. Let us stop pretending multiculturalism means division. It means potential. It means resilience. But only if we invest in it. 

To those who say, “what about us?” the answer must be, yes, you too. We will not leave you behind. But lifting one person up does not mean pushing another down. That is the myth that fuels the far right, and it is a lie. There is enough food, enough shelter, enough compassion to go around. The only thing in short supply is political courage.

If Reform are the only ones listening, it is because too many of us have stayed silent. That must end. We do not need to shout louder, we need to listen deeper. Beneath the fear and frustration, people want dignity. They want a future. They want to feel at home in their own country again.

Let us give them that, not by building walls, but by laying foundations. Real ones. The kind you can build a future on.