Reform UK is weird

Reform UK wants to make Britain “Great” again.

It’s September and this summer’s general election has left more questions than answers about the future of the United Kingdom. With Conservative Rishi Sunak making way for Keir Starmer, the Labour party is back at the helm after various economic and quality of life frustrations which led the British people to make a stunning change. The July election became the worst performance for the Conservative party in their 190 year history as they lost 250 seats of parliament. This massive win for the Labour party stops the problematic pattern of far right populism across Europe. However, an unpredictable player has made themselves known to the general public, Reform UK. 

Reform UK is a right-wing political party that portrays themselves as the savior of the UK who “will stand up for British culture, identity and values”. They hope to gather momentum from citizens across the UK as an alternative to long standing Labour and Conservative rule.

Who is Reform UK? Reform UK was founded in 2019 originally under the name Brexit Party by British Politician, Nigel Farage. It was not until 2021, when Reform UK became what is known today. As the original name of the party suggests, Nigel Farage was and continues to be a massive supporter of the controversial 2016 Brexit decision when the UK left the European Union (EU). 

So how is Brexit connected to Reform UK? According to Reform UK’s own website, their plans for the UK are plain and simple for anyone to see as they believe “both legal and illegal immigration are at record levels and woke ideology has captured our public institutions and schools” and that “only Reform will stand up for British culture, identity and values […] [and] will freeze immigration and stop the boats.” 

Reform UK’s foundation emphasizes a need to re-establish “British culture, identity and values”. This phrasing is just a façade that just goes to show that their actual goal is to promote British nationalism with no room for immigrants and people of color. The idea of slowing down the intake of refugees and asylum seekers matches former PM Boris Johnson’s Brexit referendum. Boris Johnson and his supporters managed to persuade the UK that leaving the EU meant a path to restore the UK’s place in the world and a “win-win for all”. However, the public was greatly misled, as Brexit, according to Foreign Affairs, “was more a narrowing than an expansion of the horizons of Britishness…  [as Brexit] was driven by an inchoate but resurgent English nationalism.” Nationalism in practice becomes inherently dangerous as it can emphasize, especially in western colonial countries, white supremacy and white nationalism.

British/English nationalism unfortunately has taken the media by storm since Brexit as unrest recently erupted in Northern Ireland and England due to misinformation spread online. This unrest can be linked to Channel 3Now, a website based in Pakistan which gave the wrong name and identity of the 17-year-old who was charged over the stabbings in Southport, England. 

Channel 3Now, claimed that the accused was an asylum seeker who had just arrived in the UK. Unfortunately untrue rumors began to spread online as this article was shared by millions across various social media platforms, that claimed the attacker was muslim. Far-right supporters across the UK, including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage became instigators for these violent riots. Predictably, islamophobia set-in and many people of color, mosques, and Muslim communities were directly targeted due to this ignorance and hate.

Nigel Farage and his supporters, whether or not they fully understood the situation should be responsible for aiding these violent riots. There is no excuse for ignorance and Reform UK is using it to their advantage to gather political support. This is the same strategy used by United States’ former President Donald Trump, who is known for inciting violence in his country.

Almost identically, both Farage and Trump as well as their respective political parties stand for a complete freeze of immigration and asylum seeking. Trump and his MAGA party’s Project 2025, a written plan that Trump and his allies hope to implement in the United States in the event of a successful re-election aims to “secure the border, finish building the wall, and deport illegal aliens” and claims that the current Biden administration “ infus[es] U.S. foreign aid programs with woke extremism about “intersectionality’ and abortion.”  In addition to Reform UK’s plan to “‘freeze immigration and stop the boats”, both Trump and Farage’s plans for their countries are unequivocally the same.

Unsurprisingly, their connection does not stop there, as Nigel Farage was actually one of the first British politicians to meet Trump after he had won the 2016 presidential election. Moreover, Farage had even spoken at multiple Trump rallies before Trump had won that election and now plans to support him again for the 2024 presidential election.

It appears clear that they hope to elevate each other for their common goals of promoting extreme nationalism and xenophobia. If Donald Trump’s America is any indicator of what is wrong with building a nation that promotes hate and the preservation of conservative ideology, then the people of the United Kingdom should be worried. Nigel Farage and his unpredictable Refrom UK party represents the fear of change and progress. Whatever party you might support, you must understand that your vote has consequences and the fact that Reform UK has five members of Parliament should scare you.

Fortunately, there is still time to educate and share the truth of what happens when hate wins. The United States is at a point of extreme polarization unseen since the American Civil War (1861-1865). The United States was only two inches away from being in a state of chaos and unprecedented violence when Donald Trump was nearly assasinated in early July. 

Dear United Kingdom, do not be like the United States, choose love and choose acceptance. Reject the dangerous talking points of Farage and his allies and understand that Reform UK is just weird.