A message from our General Secretary
In the security industry we are not protected by slogans, we are protected by hard won legal rights at work and the strength of our unions. That’s why the trade union movement has been increasingly direct about the threat posed by the far right and by Reform UK. The SIF’s position is clear: the far right thrives on division and the best antidote is organising at work and delivering real improvements to workers rights. So let’s cut through the “party of working people” pitch and look at what Reform actually stand for.
1) “Make it easier to hire and fire” is an attack on job security, including yours.
Reform’s own “Contract with You” says they want to “scrap thousands of laws, including employment laws” and to “make it easier to hire and fire”. That’s not pro-worker. That’s a blueprint for making work more precarious, weakening protections, and tilting the balance even further towards bad employers.
2) Rolling back equality protections helps dodgy employers not ordinary workers.
Reform’s Contract says they would “replace the 2010 Equalities Act” and scrap DE&I rules. The Equality Act is a hard-won shield for working people including protections around discrimination, harassment, pregnancy/maternity, disability, and more. That matters in security work where lone working, public-facing conflict, and unfair treatment are real issues.
3) “Divide and blame” politics weakens your pay and conditions.
So called ‘far-right’ narratives target groups of workers and try to turn us against each other, instead of taking on the real causes of low pay and poor conditions.
Security teams are diverse. If you let politicians split your workplace into “us and them”, you hand employers exactly what they want, a workforce that’s easier to underpay, overwork, and ignore.
So why do the soundbites land?
Because people are angry about bills, housing, crime, and being ignored. That anger is valid, but Reform’s answers largely point downwards, scapegoating, dividing, and stripping back rights, while quietly enabling deregulation, weaker employment laws, and easier dismissal.
As a trade union our priority is our members, the backbone of the UK’s private security industry and the many cyber security workers protecting our critical national infrastructure. The SIF have never affiliated to a political party and we have no plans to. The current Labour government, headed up by Keir Starmer, have been woeful since they came into power and this has played into the hands of Nigel Farage.
The security industry is made up of a wonderful mix of races, genders and beliefs, this is something to be proud of and celebrate, it only makes us stronger.
Where SIF stands and what we’re doing next
SIF exists to defend security workers. Whether on pay, conditions, unfair treatment, violence at work, or basic dignity and we’re not going to pretend the far right is “just another opinion” when it’s politics depends on dividing workers and undermining protections.
That’s why SIF will be marching in London on Saturday 28 March 2026 with the Together Alliance, a broad coalition of unions and civil society groups standing for unity, facts over fear, and solidarity over scapegoating.
If you’re tempted by divided politics, judge them by their written programme and their direction of travel not their theatrical performance. When a party tells you it wants to scrap employment laws and make it easier to hire and fire, believe them.
As Martin Luther King Jr once said, “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”. Lets stay together, organised, and steadfast in our respect for one another.
In solidarity
Daniel Garnham
SIF General Secretary
