Faragism is Racism
JVL Introduction
In the aftermath of ITV’s exposure of racism in Reform UK, Martin Shaw writes that “The problem is not the individual extremists, but Farage’s ideology and platform that attract them and make them a political threat.”
As Shaw shows, the relationship of Brexit to racism is similar to Zionism’s. In both, in abstract, there is nothing apparently racist in British (or Jewish) self-determination. The practice is very different.
Brexit, he reminds us, forced hundreds of thousands of Europeans from the UK, “a success for Farage’s anti-immigration politics that far exceeded anything that Enoch Powell achieved in the overtly racist 1960s”.
it also encouraged a new wave of street-level aggression, and an even more overt racism in Restore.
Shaw does well to remind us that there are no Chinese walls between Yaxley-Lennon’s, Lowe’s and Farage’s supporters.
The danger ahead is very real.
This article was originally published by History / theory / politics on Tue 20 Oct 2026. Read the original here.
Faragism is Racism
New exposés of Reform UK’s “problems with racists” miss the main point. Racism is central to Nigel Farage’s political ideology. It’s his racism that attracts them.
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