Manchester, United Kingdom – Agnes Peters, a care worker from Manchester, vividly remembers the moment she was targeted for her race. Racists have become emboldened, she said, describing the rise of xenophobia in the United Kingdom. They’re out there actively trying to pull people down.” While the nature of racism that emerged after Brexit has persisted, focused on those trying to enter the UK irregularly, other minorities have also been at the sharp end of discrimination.
Earlier this month, Oxfam, Amnesty International and 152 other groups issued a joint statement calling for the government “to act immediately” over what they described as the normalisation of racist violence in the UK. In recent days, far-right activist Daniel Thomas, described as an “outright racist” by UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, filmed himself slashing an inflatable rescue boat in the Channel – while a rescue worker was still on board. His group, Patriot Platform, has caused chaos during anti-migrant actions at the ports of Dover and Portsmouth, and he has suggested bringing “thousands” of his black-clad members to the Oxfordshire village of Piddington, where some are resisting government attempts to house asylum seekers.
Other English towns have also seen anti-migration protests, often featuring crowds of masked men engaging in anti-social behaviour. Commenting on Piddington, Sarah Pochin, an MP with the far-right Reform UK, claimed in an interview that migrants and refugees posed a threat to “indigenous white women”. However, this doesn’t seem to build their base, so much as draw people to the further right-wing extremes.
I mean, why would you go for a party aping the extreme, when the real deal is available?” Earlier this month, Reform UK’s self-styled “shadow Home Secretary” Zia Yusuf was accused of racism after writing on X that Labour figure Sagal Abdi-Wali, tipped to run in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, was born in Somalia. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds called the post “pretty straightforward racism”. In 2025, then-Conservative shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick was criticised for saying he had not seen “another white face” during a visit to Birmingham, while earlier this year his successor, Nick Timothy, described a mass Muslim prayer event in Trafalgar Square as “an act of domination”.
Aurelien Mondon, of the Reactionary Politics Research Network at the University of Bath, noted “a clear link between the emboldening of the most extreme actors on the far right and over two decades of mainstreaming of far-right discourse by mainstream actors”. Support for Restore, which is further to the right than Reform, was predicted at 4 percent. The hard right is also making gains in Germany and France.
Mainstream political parties “have capitulated to the hard-right agenda when it comes to the onslaught against migrants and refugee rights”, they added. In Manchester, Ashraf said while the far right may be better funded and, through various social media networks, have a stronger platform, there is still cause for optimism.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
