SUTR counter-protest against Tommy Robinson on 26 October (Photo: X/@AntiRacismDay)
Nigel Farage is pushing ahead with plans to turn Reform UK into a mass far right party. It is approaching nearly 100,000 members, winning council seats in by-elections and performing well in the polls.
Reform UK has been boosted by Donald Trump’s victory in the United States presidential election. Britain needs to “roll out the red carpet” for Trump, Farage said on Friday.
Deputy leader Richard Tice said the Republican landslide had been “a comprehensive rejection of the status quo”. He said voters have “had enough of classic, smooth wafflers who talk a good game but fail to deliver”.
Tice will feel that Reform UK has the wind in its sails after making gains at a local level. It won a council seat in Wyre, near Blackpool, from the Tories—grabbing votes from both the Tories and Labour.
And in a Blackpool council by-election, Labour only just won against Reform UK. Labour won 31.5 percent, down by 16.5 percentage points, and Reform UK won 30.7 percent. The Tories lost the seat, with their vote dropping by 29 percentage points to 22 percent.
Reform UK also came third in a council by-election in Scotland on Friday. The Tories won the seat after the Independent incumbent didn’t stand, getting 36 percent of the vote. But Reform UK shot up from no previous vote tally to 26 percent.
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK chair, said on Friday that Reform UK is looking to “continue to build a really effective ground campaign capability”. He recently confirmed that Reform UK wants to make inroads in council and devolved parliamentary elections in Wales and Scotland before the next general election.
That’s why Reform UK hosted its Welsh conference on Friday.
Matt Goodwin, a right wing commentator and former university academic, told the conference that Reform UK represents the “forgotten majority” like Trump.
Recent polling, funded by Brexit businessperson Arron Banks, put Reform UK at 20 percent in Wales. Welsh Labour was on 30 percent, Plaid Cymru on 21 percent and the Tories on 17 percent.
Ahead of the event, Farage described Reform UK as “now the main challenger to Labour in Wales”. He went after Labour, suggesting that people had been let down by “failure after failure” from successive Welsh Labour governments.
Party insiders are targeting a return of at least 16 members of the Welsh parliament in 2026. Reform UK did not win any MPs in Wales in this year’s general election, but came second in 13 of the 32 seats and secured 16.9 percent of the vote.
This is part of a wider strategy that Farage has spoken about. He wants to mimic the Liberal Democrats’ strategy of building up a national base of regional representatives, councillors and activists to try to expand its support.
At the Reform UK conference in September, Farage said, “The Liberal Democrats build branches and the Liberal Democrats win seats at district, council and unity level. The Liberal Democrats put literature through doors in their target areas.”
A director of a polling consultancy, Luke Tryl, warned on Friday that if Reform UK “got sort of Lib-Dem style efficiency they could gain around 50 seats”.
Pushing back against Reform UK and the far right in Britain will take organisation. That’s why anti-racists are gathering in central London to attend Stand Up To Racism’s summit next Saturday where campaigners will discuss and debate the way forward.
Samira Ali, national organiser for SUTR, said, “Taking on Farage and Reform UK is a massive challenge. Trump winning the US election is a massive boost to racism and the far right everywhere.”
She argued, “Anti-racists have mobilised massively to push back the far right in August and against Tommy Robinson on our 20,000 strong demonstration on 26 October. But the threat is far from over.
“Every anti-racist should be at the SUTR summit on next Saturday to organise, debate and discuss how we can continue to resist.”
Several bodies washed up on the shores of northern France last week. They were the latest victims of Britain’s racist border regime—and the Labour government’s plans will mean there are many more.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has boosted funding for border security and talks of “smashing” the criminal gangs that traffic people.
Last week, he announced that he would double funding for border security ahead of a European summit hosted by Hungary’s far right prime minister Viktor Orban.
But the people smugglers only exist because of Britain’s and the European Union’s racist border rules. If there were safe and legal routes for refugees, they wouldn’t be forced to pay people traffickers.
More than half of those travelling by small boats come from war-torn and dangerous countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Eritrea, Syria, Iraq and Sudan. But any crackdown that makes it harder to cross the Channel won’t “smash the gangs” or stop desperate people trying to make it to safety in Britain.
Every time politicians have ramped up border security, it has only forced people seeking a new life to use deadlier means. And every time refugees drown or freeze in the back of a lorry as a result, politicians respond with calls for tougher security—which only ensures more deaths.
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s home secretary, wants to deport 14,000 refugees by the end of this year. The Labour government’s scapegoating of refugees and migrants fuels far right forces, such as Reform UK and Nazi Tommy Robinson’s supporters.
The only solution is safe and legal routes for refugees.
Racism first developed as a justification for enslavement
