By Sue Berry, Socialist Alternative Kent & Medway
One of the key features underpinning Labour’s landslide victory in the recent general election was the collapse of the Tory Party. While this headline is undoubtedly positive and worthy of celebration, there was also the alarmingly sharp rise in votes for Reform UK. As well as taking 5 parliamentary seats, Reform came second in 98 seats, pushing the Tories into third place in 89 of them. Nationally, they took 14.3% of the vote, outstripping the Liberal Democrats on 12%.
Various politicians from the main Westminster parties have dismissed Reform’s showing as a ‘protest’, likely to diminish over the course of the Parliament. But how significant is it? Are Reform UK capable of sustaining a long-term challenge, not just electorally, but more ominously as a ‘mass force’ that could pose a threat to migrants, LGBTQ+ people and the entire working class?
What is Reform UK?
Founded in 2018 as the Brexit Party, Reform was born in the aftermath of the UK’s decision to leave the EU, with its main policy being a ‘no deal’ Brexit. The party was renamed ‘Reform UK’ in 2021, following Britain’s exit from the EU under the deal agreed by Boris Johnson’s government. With its growth temporarily cut off by a Trumpified Tory Party under Johnson, Reform continued arguing on the sidelines for reduced net migration, a hardline neoliberal programme based on ‘low taxation’ and privatisation, alongside opposition to net zero policies and climate denialism.
This policy agenda gives a clear indication of Reform backers and in whose interests they are working. The party is listed at Companies House as an ‘Entrepreneurial Political Startup’. It is owned by four shareholders, with its leader Farage holding a controlling stake. Other shareholders include its previous leader and one of its newly elected MPs, Richard Tice, and Chief Executive Paul Oakden, former Chair of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Its biggest single financial backer, donating £10 million since its formation, is Chris Harborne. Harborne made his fortune in aviation fuel and technology investment, as well as being the largest single shareholder in the UK arms company Qinetiq, whose sales of battlefield weapons to Ukraine and elsewhere are currently booming. Other backers are Terrance Mordant, director of Tufton Street’s anti-net zero foundation and George Farmer, ex-hedge fund manager and former chair of the far-right think tank Turning Point UK.
Where does Farage’s support come from?
Up until this election, Reform UK and its predecessors had failed to make any significant gains in the parliamentary field. However, their record in European and local elections is indicative of significant popular support amongst disgruntled, mainly older, workers and small businesspeople seeking to register a ‘protest against the political establishment.’
In the European elections in 2019, for example, the Brexit Party won 29 seats, making it the biggest party from the UK represented at the European Parliament. It registered over 5 million votes, equating to 30% of the popular vote. The tactics of its representatives, once elected, was to disrupt the workings of officials while seeking to use their position as a platform for protest. Examples from Farage’s playbook have been to make personal and derogatory speeches about officials, turn their backs on other elected members, wear protest t-shirts and chicken suits in an attempt to court publicity. Farage himself took part in only 40% of European Parliamentary votes during his time in office; the worst record of any European Parliament representative.
There is absolutely no doubt that Farage’s popular support is, at least in part, based on appealing to a hardened racist core within his base. The publicised stories of Reform candidates spreading openly racist and xenophobic ideas on the doorstep gives a window into their extremely dangerous, ugly and reactionary politics. In one case, a leading Reform activist was caught on camera using racial slurs against Rishi Sunak and calling for the army to shoot dead refugees seeking refuge in crossing the English Channel.
But it would be an oversimplification to reduce Farage’s rise to racism alone. Alongside reactionary right-wing policies, Farage’s appeal is based on his false but alluring approach of describing himself as a champion of the “little man”, calling for a “revolt”, and dishonestly speaking out also against “multinational corporations”.
Such tactics explain how Farage has been able to cultivate his image as an anti-establishment figure, prepared to ‘say it how it is’ rather than hide behind parliamentary language and protocol. On campaign stalls held by Socialist Alternative members in Kent during the election, for example, many working-class voters who sympathised with our call for a new left party of struggle also expressed the view that Farage and Reform would give the establishment parties a ‘good kicking’.
The rise of Reform is being driven by the deeper disillusionment felt by working class people towards mainstream capitalist parties across the globe, including the oldest of them all, the Tories.
In one of most remarkable electoral collapses in modern history, the Tories Parliamentary majority of 80 was swept away with a loss of 251 seats and a fall of 20 percentage points to an all time low of 23.7% of the popular vote. Labour’s victory occurred having only secured an increase of 1.6% on its 2019 performance. Reform UK’s strong showing in Tory heartlands and many of the so-called ‘red wall’ (traditionally Labour but more recently Tory) seats, effectively split the right-wing vote.
But Labour can take no comfort from having benefited from Britain’s first-past-the-post system to land it this huge majority. Farage’s rallying call to build a “mass movement” outside Parliament must be taken seriously by the working class and trade union movement, as well as all those campaigning against oppression and capitalism’s climate crisis.
Only a fighting left can turn the tide
Farage and his followers have already shown their intentions through their behaviour since being elected. Within days of taking up office, Reform’s MP for Great Yarmouth Rupert Lowe has launched a campaign of bullying and intimidation against local headteachers who he claims have ‘aggressively pursued’ negative campaigning against his party amongst children.
Farage, meanwhile, is blaming the attempted assassination of Trump in the US on ‘liberals and the mainstream media’. No doubt, after his return from supporting his friend at the US Republican Convention he will use his platform on GB News to step up the culture war against the left with the potential rallying call for his stated “mass movement” on the right.
Faced with the potential long-term threat of a resurgent populist right, satirist and part-time political commentator for the BBC Ian Hislop recently argued the best way for Labour to deal with Reform is to ignore it. Unfortunately, working class people don’t have the luxury of being able to insulate themselves from the multiple crises fuelling the rise of Reform, while waiting for Labour to solve their problems.
Resisting the rise of Reform must begin by rebuilding a radical anti-racist movement which can also take on the whole capitalist establishment and ultimately build a fightback for revolutionary socialist change. While involving mass demonstrations against the far-right, this must be crucially connected to building a working-class political alternative which rejects big business policies, is based on the fighting power of the trade unions, and can trounce the false idea that Farage stands on the side of ordinary people.
We have to rebuild our movement as a fighting alternative that can act as a counterweight to the divisive rhetoric of the far-right. Another more promising feature of the General Election was the significant vote for independent, anti-war and community-based campaigns, many with an openly left-wing and progressive message. This shows the potential for a new mass left party – one that can unite the multi-racial working class in struggle, be pole of attraction for those disillusioned with the establishment politicians, and provide the much-needed alternative to the dead end offered by Farage and Reform UK.
