“What has emerged in the recent period is a counter-movement against the far right which is commensurate to the scale of the task ahead of us.”
Diane Abbott MP writes for Labour Outlook
In fairly quick succession, we have had the summer far right riots after labour was elected in June 2024. Then we had the largest-ever mobilisation by the far right in this country in September 2025. Then we had the largest ever mobilisation of anti-racists and those opposed to the far right in this country.
It is fair to say that issues of asylum, immigration and racism have been driven up the political agenda. This is despite the degree of consensus of anti-migrant scapegoating that has been established across the leading political parties.
What has emerged in the recent period is a counter-movement against the far right which is commensurate to the scale of the task ahead of us. No-one (apart from BBC broadcast media) can ignore us when we can bring half a million people out onto the streets.
The question is now – How do we take the movement forward and build on our successes and really drive the far right back? First, we have to make a sober assessment of the objective situation, including our own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of our opponents.
There is a huge amount of disinformation about the far right, who it threatens, and how to fight it. This should not be surprising. In answer to the prolonged economic crisis, there have been a series of parties, UKIP, the Brexit Party and now Reform UK that have been formed on the fringes of the right in this country. All of them are peddling snake oil.
They do not offer solutions to the crisis. Instead, they offer only scapegoats. And Reform maintains that trend now. It only has one policy, which is to blame migrants and asylum-seekers for all of society’s many ills. That infects the entire approach to anyone who might be a migrant, or who is simply Black or Asian. They are sometimes told, to go back home when they, their parents and their grandparents were born here.
In Reform’s fantasy island, the people who are not blamed are bankers and the politicians who encouraged them. The energy companies are not blamed, even though they are enormous profiteers, and the same goes for the food companies. Landlords too, although the worst ones are some of the most predatory capitalists of all.
Of course, Reform and its leading people are not going to blame these people, who cause the crisis. This is for the simple reason that they are bankers, or hedge funders, or landlords or private equity vultures. And they are bankrolled by international billionaire money, mainly from the United States. This was abundantly clear in the far right’s demo, and the fact that Reform UK is awash with money.
For years, we had to put up with nonsense that their racism originated primarily out of the working class. It did not and it does not. It arose firstly from the angry middle classes who are squeezed mercilessly by big business and by the depressed living standards of the workers. They found allies in the unemployed, many of whom never voted before, the dodgy smally businesses and crooks like Tommy Robinson, and other malcontents. All endorsed by Trump, who claims we are in a “civilisational crisis”. And bankrolled by the richest man on the planet, Elon Musk.
For years, we suffered the indignity of being lectured that this reactionary, motley crew were ‘the left behind’. But they are not socially deprived, exploited or oppressed like workers, the poor and oppressed groups are. They are reactionaries who want to divert attention from their paymasters’ role is this crisis.
So, we had the ridiculous spectacle of a leading academic who specialised in churning out garbage that these rightist parties were primarily a threat to Labour, not the Tories. He turns up as the Reform UK candidate in the Gorton by-election – and lost.
Reform have been beaten now twice, firstly in Caerphilly and then in Gorton. And the far right and the racists were also beaten on the streets, by the huge Together demo on March 28. Reform were beaten by a progressive alliance, the majority of voters. The far right were beaten by a similarly progressive alliance.
Unfortunately, none of this includes the Labour party. Although it does include many party members. But that is a choice Keir Starmer has made. But what we have shown is that, taking a principled stand, and uniting all progressive forces, we can beat back the far right electorally and on the streets.
We must maintain those principles and that unity in the period ahead. The far right has been pushed back by the first proper mass resistance they have encountered. But they have not been routed. And the economic crisis has not gone away. Nor have endless wars, or the ceaseless campaign to demonise immigrants and asylum-seekers.
We still have a massive job to do.
- Diane Abbott is the Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington: you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.
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