What’s happening within the right of UK politics?
Things have been slowly shifting on the right of UK politics ever since the Referendum Party appeared many moons ago. The pace of change has increased a lot since the 2016 EU/Brexit Referendum through various iterations of further right/far right parties ending up recently in Reform.
The political movement of the right is often and in my view wrongly spoken of as being a changing of the guard between the failing Tories and Reform. In simplistic terms this may be a significant part of the case but it also masks the movement of right-wing Labour supporters first to back Brexit, then to back Johnson and now with them standing with Reform. And don’t forget it was this section of Labour’s ‘support’ which delivered Brexit for Johnson.
Labour has been able to rely on a pretty solid working class vote for generations across the UK and that includes many supporters who have been, to varying degrees, right-wing. Having said that the East Midlands, where I hail from, is an obvious area where Labour has never really been able to secure/rely on working-class right-wingers.
Ever since I became involved in politics and the trade union movement in 1980 it has been clear to me that Labour has had a significant number of right-wing working-class members/supporters. Indeed, a reinforcement of my view came from a Labour Party member in the early 1980s who told me that Labour had more racists than the then Tory Party. I appreciate that racism is only one factor that can denote people with right-wing opinions and that some right-wingers may well not be racists, but let’s face it racism amongst genuine progressives should be a rare thing.
The Tories have pretty much destroyed themselves in recent years, not least because they had no plan whatsoever to deliver the Brexit they campaigned for. Again, I accept that not all Tories backed Brexit but very many did. Reform has been on the Tory’s heels for a while now and it has effectively forced them to tack further and further to the right so to compete with Reform – it hasn’t worked!
It was often said up to a couple of generations ago that the Church of England was the Conservative Party at prayer and I think that sweeping generalisation was actually not so far away from the truth. Yes, of course not all CofE worshippers were or are Tories by a long chalk but many used to be and as a choirboy in the late 1960s/early 1970s I’d say I think I saw that. Nowadays I suggest that saying is probably way off mark with only a minority of Conservatives being CofE. In part that’ll be a consequence of declining religious participation generally but the present day Tory Party is very different from the one of the 1970s. It’s now much further right, the One Nation Tories have either left or been invited to leave and the rhetoric from Tories these days is hardly consistent with religious teachings especially when it comes to immigration! My view is that the CofE influence held back many Conservatives of the past from pursuing less inclusive ideas which are very much to the fore now sadly.
But now let’s look at Labour’s shifting support. I’ve lived on Merseyside since I was 10 and a county more devoted to Labour you’d do well to find. Yes, there’ve been some significant Lib Dem successes across Merseyside but they were pretty much snuffed out by Clegg’s leadership of the party and are only now being rebuilt. I reference Merseyside because it’s the area of the UK where I’ve been politically active for 45 years.
There was a Town Council by-election in Maghull last week, in its West Ward. Unbelievably, there was no Labour candidate and the serious contest was between the mainly socialist Community Independents and Reform. The two other candidates were also rans, in horse racing terms. The Community Independents won with 339 votes but Reform came from nowhere to gather 309 votes. Whilst there was a Tory candidate, right-wing voters pretty much ignored them to back Reform and I’m sure Reform also got significant support from former Labour voters with right-wing views. Reform actually won a by-election in the Merseyside Borough of St. Helens in recent weeks. Let’s be face it, if Labour’s vote is collapsing to the point where it can’t field a candidate and it loses a seat too then things are looking grim indeed for Starmer’s Party on Merseyside and probably beyond.
Labour, like the Tories, has found itself leaking votes and support to Reform. It’s why Starmer has, like the Conservatives, been tacking towards the right in what looks to be fruitless attempt to keep or even pull back discontented right-wing leaning Labour supporters, or should I say former supporters. Of course, by tacking right, Starmer has been alienating his progressive, left of centre and socialist supporters. Indeed, the emergence of the Community Independents is very much caused by Labour tacking right. Also, the Lib Dems have been picking up centre-left former Labour voters/supporters whilst those with a socialist inclination, who have not gone towards the Community Independents have shifted to the socialist leaning Green Party.
Our two major political parties of long memory are in deep, deep trouble and we could be close to the effective death of one or both of them akin to the demise of the old Liberal Party in the 1920s/30s.
Many who look upon themselves as working-class are now drawn towards the further and far right in significant numbers. This despite the politics they’re now backing being manipulated by wealthy right-wing extremists who look upon public services as something to be cut back to enable further tax cuts for the wealthy. This scenario could well lead to such voters effectively shooting themselves in both feet via making the rich richer and helping with the deconstruction of the public services they rely upon. And all this because they’re just fed up with mainstream politicians, be they Conservative or Labour, for not delivering what they want to see.
