How the Far Right Entered Mainstream Politics in Britain, Europe and America

There’s no denying far-right parties in the USA and Europe have played a significant role in shaping our current political landscape. Strong electoral performances by far-right parties have taken their ideas from being seen as marginalised crankish ultra-nationalism into becoming mainstream opinion: most recently the Lega and Austrian Freedom Party became part of coalition governments in Italy and Austria, while Marine Le Pen looks set (if polls are to be believed) to become the next French president.

Beyond the far-right itself, the 2016 campaigns of Donald Trump and the UK Brexit referendum emboldened the far-right and all this helped legitimise our ideas about immigration and national identity.

What is the “mainstream”?

Rather than complicating things, I rather like simple and for this purpose, (You can read a more in-depth analysis here ) I’m fond of Meguid’s definition, which argues:

“Mainstream parties are defined as the electorally dominant actors in the centre-left, centre and centre-right blocs on the Left-Right political spectrum. In this classification, the centre-left parties explicitly exclude left-libertarian parties, whereas the center-right categorization excludes right-authoritarian, or right-wing, populist parties.”

It’s neat and it’s simple. I like it.

A brief history

In the UK, one of the first far-right groups to appear was the British Brothers League, an anti-immigration, virulently antisemitic group established in 1901, to be replaced by the British Fascisti in 1923, 

Far-right politics came sooner in the US with the Ku Klux Klan in 1865, a virulently racist organisation, though during the depression other homegrown groups appeared, like the Silver Shirts or the Black Legion. But it was after the birth of Nazism around 1920 that far-right groups started to appear, such as the German American Bund.

Racism became more apparent when 40,000 klansmen marched in Washington on 8^th August 1925, just as when the British Union of Fascists (BUF) held a rally in Earls Court when 30,000 fascists assembled to hear Oswald Mosley. While they attracted huge crowds, the majority opposed fascism, as we saw when 100,000 anti-fascists rallied against the German American Bund’s rally in New York City in 1939 and in Cable Street (UK) in 1936.

Postwar, Professor Cas Muddle argues there have been four phases in the history of the far-right (you can read more on Muddle's theory here ). In the first wave between 1945 to 1955 membership coonsisted mostly of remnants from the past, while phase two membership between 1955 to 1980 was mainly of old Bund or BUF members, but included a new element concerned about immigration

The 1960s tends to be seen as the era of social liberalism, a time when in the US the Civil Rights movement were making significant gains, while in the UK we saw the birth of Race Relations laws. However, by the late 1960s, 

Enoch Powell, then a Conservative MP gave his “Rivers of Blood” speech indirectly leading to the emergence of the National Front, British Movement and the National Socialist Movement. While in the USA, under Lincoln Rockwell, we saw the rise of the American Nazi party, National States Rights Party and the John Birch Society.

Returning to Muddle’s model, phase 3 fell between 1980 and 2000 where the far-right concentrated mostly on immigration and race. Shortly before, in 1969, Enoch Powell delivered his infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech where he told a story about talking to a constituent who finished by saying to Powell: "In this country in 15 or 20 years' time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man".

In America, Gov. William Wallace, in a speech argued “… segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”. His speech was written by Klan member, Asa Carter.

Suddenly, minority views, previously seldom discussed were at the centre of mainstream political discussion.

The Overton Window

The Overton window is a political model describing the range of ideas and policies society finds acceptable at any given time and over the last few years there has been a sizable shift.

      How the model works -

·       Inside the window: Ideas are considered normal, sensible, and mainstream. Politicians can safely support them without looking extreme.

·       Outside the window: Ideas are viewed as radical, fringe, or unthinkable. Politicians risk losing votes if they back them.

·       The spectrum of acceptance: Ideas are often graded from "unthinkable" to "radical," "acceptable," "sensible," "popular," and finally turned into law

Far-right mainstreaming taps into long-held beliefs society and attempt to mobilize xenophobic and authoritarian tendencies. They grasp cultural and social fears about how our nation is being ‘invaded by outsiders or how minority values are becoming part of the norm.

Previously fringe opinions, traditionally associated with the far-right are being pushed into mainstream politics eg: demands for harsher immigration policies (particularly towards Muslims), increased ICE detentions, beating, forced deportations, dumping asylum seekers, and militarised border enforcement on the US-Mexico border – all measures once considered extreme, but now the norm.

But how did we move away from liberal democratic ideals? What changed? I’d argue there were a number of things moved our countries into taking more reactionary stances.

How Brexit in the UK helped mainstream the far-right

The UK formally voted to leave the European Union on 31^st January 2020, but it was the decade leading to it that shifted the Overton Window.

1.     Though it emerged in 1990, the United Kingdon Independence Party didn’t appear on the political landscape until September 1993, where they quickly introduced Nigel Farage onto the arena. Almost immediately, he proposed banning new migrants from accessing public benefits, denying social housing or free NHS treatment for the first five years as well as cutting the foreign aid budget by 75%. His populist platform was similar to the far-right agendas of John Tyndall’s National Front, or Nick Griffin’s British National Party who had long been calling for a ban on immigration and compulsory repatriation despite net migration at that time being slightly negative. Recording of illegal asylum seekers didn’t take place at that time but, as an indicator the total number of successful asylum seekers in 1993 was about 20,000.

2.     During Nigel Farage’s Brexit campaign, he was reported to police after unveiling a poster showing queues of mostly non-white migrants and refugees, with the caption: “Breaking point: the EU has failed us all.” in a MORI poll showing people believed Britain hosted 23% of all asylum seekers in the world, whereas the actual number was only 1,97%.

How senior politicians helped mainstream the far-right

Several senior politicians helped mainstream far-rights myths:

a)    Newt Gingrich pioneered a combative legislative strategy in the 1980s and 1990s that utilized polarizing language to brand political opponents as existential threats, laying the systemic groundwork for modern hyper-partisan discourse

b)    JD Vance has consistently articulated and popularised elements of far-right ideology from within national legislative bodies, merging traditional conservatism with common extreme right ‘cultural grievance’ politics and nationalism.

c)     Ted Cruz was a leading voice in the Tea Party movement before aligning closely with the MAGA wing. In his speeches, he encouraged deep racial and cultural anxieties in line with the Tea Party agenda.

d)    Nigell Farage agreed to, and appeared on six separate occasions on American, Alex Jones’ ‘Infowars’, a far-right podcast promoted by members of both Britain First and Patriotic Alternative and hard right elements in the GOP. Jones was sued in 2022 for defaming victims and families of the Sandy Hook shooting and juries awarded against him to the tune of $1.487.

e)    Farage also appeared on far-right American Rick Wiles extreme web radio. Wiles is also founder and editor of the extreme right and antisemitic Tru-News. Wiles has said that Jews seek to obtain control of countries to "kill millions of Christians” and has claimed that Jews are "deceivers" and "plot, they lie, they do whatever they have to do to accomplish their political agenda".

f)      Jack Anderson (Reform party consultant) was the subject of controversy in August 2025, when the Guardian revealed he had suggested Britain would have been better off it hadn’t fought Nazi Germany in World War Two and said the UK could “regain” former colonies in a future world of “meritocracy”, also claiming Russia is not our enemy”.

g)    Pete Durnell (Reform party - West Midland Regional Director) has been often quoted citing the far-right “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory and prophesying in March 2018 “the whole of Europe will be Islamic sooner or later”.

h)    Suella Braverman: Utilized inflammatory language while serving as Home Secretary by labelling migrant Channel crossings an “invasion,” directly echoing historic fringe nationalist talking points.

None of these politicians were far-right, but all knew how to build a movement playing on people’s fears and each one took beliefs from the far-right playbook

How the media in the US and UK helped mainstream the far right

When the media saw the frenzy being created, they bought into the fear-inducing rhetoric suggesting how, without major controls, a future Britain would lose all sense of national identity. The Daily Mail headlined in December 2002 with “Now there’s one asylum claim every six minutes”, soon followed by the Daily Express, printing a headline “Asylum Seekers spreading AIDS around Britain”. A headline hardly dissimilar to the 1941 Nazi ‘Der Sturmer’ one arguing “Jews are lice – they spread typhus”.

Additionally, television in the UK became part of the mainstreaming process. GB News a right-wing station partly owned by the hedge-fund manager Paul Marshall, who researchers exposed in 2024 for endorsing far-right tweets such as one declaring “the native European population is losing patience with the fake refugee invaders”. Add to that how regular broadcaster on the station, Bev Turner kept her job despite previously suggesting COVID-19 may have been bioengineered to cause “less harm” to. Ashkenazi Jews,

GB News, US correspondent Steven Edginton also gave the far-right YouTuber, Connor Tomlinson an unexpected platform, Tomlinson is an advocate of ‘remigration’ who believes ‘English people are white’ and home secretary Shabana Mahmood, who was born in Birmingham, is ‘not ethnically, legally, or culturally English in any way’. Tomlinson appeared on 4 separate occasions, each time promoting an overtly far-right agenda. In the final interview, on 3 December, Tomlinson asserted “our Parliament is turned into a battle ground for the ethnic grudges of the Indian subcontinent” and followed up with a social media post the same day, which said: “We should ban those without native British ancestry from being MPs.”

Just as Edginton has been keen to hear from Tomlinson, he has also given four interviews to the far-right commentator Carl Benjamin (AKA Sargon of Akkad), the first on 9 July 2024 and the most recent on 26 November 2025.Benjamin is an ex-member of post-Farage and far-right UKIP, helped found Lotus Eaters Media and is a founding member of Restore Britain.

How Trump helped mainstream the far-right

People today often dismiss the significance of January 6^{th, 2021}, but let’s get real here, it was an attempted coup d’etat by the far-right. Admittedly, it was unplanned, a primary reason why it failed, but had it been better organised, America could have been a very different place today, being run by neo-fascists.

The Proud Boys, the Oathkeepers, (both far-right militias) along with the Last Sons of Liberty, Rod of Iron Ministries, Groypers, the Nationalist Social Club and multiple factions of the Three Percenters actively engaged in storming congress. What was noticeable that day was the large number of activists wearing neo-Nazi apparel and frequently making fascist salutes, suggesting this was more than a demonstration in support of Trump, but an active fa-right rebellion, evidenced later by the FBI who proved a number of neo-Nazi groups were active that day, including NSC-131.

Now, I’m not suggesting Trump is a neo-fascist, or even far-right, but what I am saying is his candidature and presidency substantially helped create a major radicalisation of the GOP. Looking at the party today, it seems the centre-right has little influence and hard/ far-right activists are in control.

Political comment

All too often I read about left extremism and left antisemitism. As I explained in a previous article these accusations are reasonable and fair, but we remain blind to broader political scenarios; we risk ignoring the extremism of the far-right. Cas Muddle identified a fourth phase of the far-right that went beyond 2000 where they become part of mainstream politics. In America, much of the ideology of the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers is promoted in both the Senate and House – viewing feminism as being detrimental to society, right-wing populism and nationalism (see MAGA).

And in the UK, it’s no different and Farage and now Rupert Lowe distort statistics and lie to promote a nationalist and racist agenda.

By ignoring the covert rise of the far-right, we open the door to division – tactics used so effectively in 1932 and by becoming part of mainstream politics, they bring with it an extremely disturbing credibility to their agenda. I deeply fear for our future.