Wherever the Far Right Lands Electorally, Ideas Cast a Long Shadow

ABSTRACT

This piece examines three elements of the British far right today: Restore Britain, Reform UK and far‐right street movements. It examines how each element measures success, arguing that although electoral gains look difficult for Restore and Reform is no longer on track to win a majority at the next election, the far right are achieving a wider goal of ‘metapolitics’. Ethnonationalism—the idea that Britishness is defined by white ancestry, and not by values or citizenship—remains a live threat to social cohesion and democracy in the UK.