Anti-racists must build in their local areas to take on this national threat (Pic: Guy Smallman)
The recent ITV Exposure documentary on Reform UK shows it is right to call it a racist party.
Reform UK is not only saturated with racism—it is the glue that binds together its support.
Several councillors and wannabe councillors were recorded by an undercover journalist during the May elections.
They fantasised about groups of armed white men attacking the homes of black and brown families and rounding them up for deportation.
One spoke about how he wanted to sexually assault a female Reform UK candidate.
In 2024, a similar undercover investigation by Channel 4 caught a Reform UK canvasser saying the army should use migrant boats as “target practice”.
Then, Nigel Farage pledged that he would improve vetting procedures and clean out the “few bad apples” in his party. But Reform UK has gathered more and more rotten apples since.
The question now is how much this expose will hurt Reform UK’s vote. The far right party has been dogged by financial scandals and revelations of its bigotry for years, yet this doesn’t seem to have reduced its support.
And, if Reform UK does start to decline, where will its voters go?
Many may return to the Conservatives, who are climbing out of record unpopularity. The Tory party edged ahead of Reform UK for the first time since May this month.
New polling from Ipsos showed that 35 percent of voters see the Tories as the main challenge to Labour, while 32 percent think it is Reform UK.
This shows that Reform UK’s voters are splitting and the Tories have moved further to the right.
Reform UK also faces more competition on the far right, particularly from Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain. Lowe has openly championed Daniel “Tommo” Thomas’s fascist thugs.
This puts pressure on Reform UK to radicalise rightwards.
And that can allow the Tories to win back some right wing conservatives who went over to Farage.
The result is a redistribution of votes on the right.
But competition between right wing forces pulls them rightwards over immigration.
Islamophobia, racism and anti-working class policies are cornerstones of the Tories as well as of Reform UK. If the far right voters of Reform UK flood back to the Tories, we can expect very little change.
With the fascists gaining a foothold on the streets and Restore Britain encroaching into parliament, the source of danger shifts. Anti-racists must build in their local areas, as well as joining national networks to take on this national threat.
Anti-racism must be imbued with a more radical anti-fascist edge if it is to challenge the far right and beat it back for good.
Guidance from NHS England last week says that trans+ people should be excluded from single-sex wards.
Previously, they were allowed to use facilities that matched their gender.
It is another in a series of attacks on trans+ people since a Supreme Court ruling in April last year that stated that a woman is defined by “biological sex”.
If the guidance is implemented, it will deny trans+ people the access to healthcare they are entitled to.
As campaign group TransActual points out, trans+ people already avoid seeking medical care due to fear of discrimination. This guidance could force them into unsafe situations, including corridor care, and risk outing and humiliating them.
It could also force health workers to become the “gender police”, which will mean some cisgender people are also interrogated by staff.
Defiance is key to beat back this attack. Health workers and their unions should get organised at work to say that they won’t implement this harmful and unnecessary guidance.
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