Tommy Robinson, Britain First, Patriotic Alternative and Homeland all urge their supporters to vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform Party
With the General Election just days away, the rise of Reform UK in the polls has dominated discussions in both the media and the pub. It now looks certain that Reform’s leader Nigel Farage will win in the constituency of Clacton, whilst polling seems to indicate that Reform could be on course to win several seats.
As previously reported by HOPE not hate, much of the traditional far right were caught off guard by the announcement of a snap election. While there is a smattering of extreme right candidates standing, some notable far-right groups failed to muster any at all, opting to sit the elections out completely.
However, with Reform surging in the polls, the rest of the far right has been forced to decide whether to offer the support of their tiny groupuscules to Farage’s party.
Perhaps unsurprisingly considering the increasingly hardline rhetoric and policies being offered up by Farage, most have decided it is time to back him.
Within the far right, some see Reform as merely a tool to destroy the Conservative Party, while others are enthused by Farage’s extreme rhetoric on issues such as immigration and Transgender rights. Some have also welcomed Farage’s comments on NATO and Russia.
That much of the rest of the far right are now supporting Reform should come as no surprise. Over recent months the party has been forced to deselect or distance itself from a raft of candidates when extreme or racist comments have come to light, so extremists thinking they have a home in Reform is nothing new.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, amongst the most excited and vocal encouragers of Reform is leader of the irrelevant Reclaim Party, Laurence Fox, who has enthusiastically encouraged his handful of remaining supporters to “lend your support to the only party and the only man, Nigel Farage, which is offering hope in the coming election.”
Similarly, Stephen Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson), has said “Nigel Farage’s winning over the people and he’s putting across our arguments to the nation very skillfully and in a great way. There is only one option at this election and that is Reform UK.”
Lennon’s allies in Britain First have also fallen in behind Farage with its leader Paul Golding taking the confusing position of refusing to endorse Reform while simultaneously urging his supporters to vote for Farage’s party.
“In the General Election on July the fourth vote Reform because they are taking a sledgehammer to the two party system,” he urged on a recent video, describing them as “the best of a bad bunch.”
As we previously reported, Britain First decided to sit these elections out all together. The original reason offered for the decision was that they were “not ready to mount a serious effort.” A downcast Golding explained that Britain First activists, “are exhausted, physically. Our donor base is exhausted, financially… We would stand in seats and do terribly. We’re going to skip this general election. We don’t have the resources, manpower, finances to put up even more than a half-arsed campaign. We’re just not at that level yet.”
Now, in light of Reform’s recent rise in the polls, Golding has changed his story, claiming instead that his party actually, “stood aside to give them [Reform] a clear run.” Golding’s assertion that he didn’t want to split the Reform vote is both untrue but also amusing considering Britain First’s comically dismal vote share in all recent elections.
The most telling endorsement so far has come from Patriotic Alternative’s beleaguered leader, Mark Collett. While maintaining that Farage is “controlled opposition”, Collett seems excited that Farage looks set, “to genuinely challenge and possibly destroy the Conservative Party at this election and they are doing so by running with genuine nationalist policies.”
Collet goes on to explain how the British National Party’s (BNP) old election leaflets “were actually markedly tamer than Farage’s current rhetoric,” arguing that, “the same man who boasts about destroying the BNP is now standing on a platform that is more explicitly about demographics than the BNP did at its height.”
Collett was especially excited by Farage’s pledge to “leave the ECHR and deport all illegal migrants to stop the boats.” “Now this sounds rather familiar,” explained Collett in a recent video, “because I’ve spent the last few weeks working on election leaflets for a number of nationalist candidates. […] These leaflets read ‘Deport All Illegal Immigrants’. It’s almost like Nigel has been aware of this and, to put it politely, is copying our homework. If one was to be less polite they might say he stole our policy.”
The leaflets Collett is referencing are for The English Democrats, a tiny far-right party that we recently revealed have entered into an electoral pact with Patriotic Alternative. In reality there is very little chance that Farage has stolen anything directly from The English Democrats as, like the rest of the country, he probably hasn’t heard of them. Much more likely is that Farage and Collett have both come up with the same policy independently, which is telling in and of itself.
One thing Collett does get right is that, “Nigel adopting our policies does prove one thing, and that is that our talking points about migration and demographics have gone mainstream.”
Collet concludes by encouraging people in constituencies where there is no English Democrat or British Democrat candidate to vote for Farage’s party, saying: “I suggest you vote Reform and help them to complete the wipeout of the Conservative Party.”
In remarkably similar comments Kenny Smith, the leader of the PA splinter organisation The Homeland Party, said, “I don’t trust Nigel Farage. He is a tool of the system. […] However, I am very excited about what he and Reform are doing at the moment. They are upsetting the apple cart in the system. They are a threat to the two party system and that’s fantastic.” He asked far-right activists, “To support a Reform candidate in their constituency if that candidate is capable of toppling the Tories.”
However, not every group to split from PA has followed suit. Alex Yerbury of the newly registered National Rebirth Party (NRP) has called on those far-right party leaders currently urging support for Reform to, “Close your party down. […] Because everything else you do to try and create an alternative becomes utterly meaningless if, on the one occasion that actually matters, you are telling people to go and vote for someone else”. Yerbury offered this advice despite the NRP deciding not to stand any candidates at the forthcoming elections itself.
That so much of the far right is encouraging people to vote for Reform isn’t a surprise, but it is telling. In some ways this situation is reminiscent of the early 2000s, when most of the far-right accepted the BNPs supremacy and either threw their lot in with Nick Griffin or at least accepted their smaller organisations were no longer a genuine competitor for far-right votes.
Until recently, many on the fascist fringe of British politics had given up on electoral politics after the failure of the BNP to break through in 2010 and the party’s subsequent implosion.
But the rise of Reform at the 2024 General Election has got many on the extreme far right excited. They see it as a chance to destroy the Conservative Party which they view as “traitors” and moderates.
More worryingly however, they recognise their own policies being adopted by Farage and Reform and see it as proof that their extreme ideas have now well and truly entered the mainstream.
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