The Threat of Nigel Farage’s Reform Has Not Gone Away
Mainstream UK parties should move on from immigration if they want to stop the Brexit architect from becoming prime minister.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage attends a farmer's protest in London.
Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images EuropeBritain’s mainstream political parties have been relishing the civil war engulfing Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK in the last few weeks. But they’d be wiser to ignore the drama and focus instead on the populist party’s surge in popularity among voters — because the conditions fueling this rise have not gone away.
Reform had been riding high after July’s general election, when it broke through the impediments posed by Britain’s “first past the post” electoral system and domination by the two main parties, the Conservatives and Labour, to win 14% of the vote and five MPs.