(Oaklandsocialist notes: “Reform UK” is a far right party started by Nigel Farage, who has visited with Trump. Farage was one of the engineers of Brexit. As we can see, Trump’s victory was part of a global tendency.)
Richard Johnson, 7th April 2025 in U.K.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer

After eight months in power the careerists who makeup the Labour government’s front bench have exceeded our worst expectations failing to deliver their election promises while implementing cruel cost cutting policies that they denounced in opposition. Their naffness beggars belief, breakfast clubs with a budget of only 60 pence a meal, a publicly owned energy company with no assets, house building targets with no builders available and twenty billion to be invested in unproven technologies that extend the use of fossil fuels. They came to power with only 34% of the vote and that support declined when they changed course implementing deep austerity cutbacks particularly for the disabled but with the absence of a high profile left movement the far right Reform UK is making gains.

Reform UK is near Labour in some polls

Reform has a huge communication advantage, the media establishment have been deep soaking British society in rightwing assumptions for decades and Reform has an extensive social media operation that is constantly amplifying its messaging, even to young people via Tick Tock while its media channel, GBNews, keeps its fans on message. Consequently it seems to be bullet proof, its politicians backed Brexit that most voters now see as a failure and the party is going through a major faction fight with its extreme elements as Farage tries to steer the party over to the hard right in order to appear more moderate but division and failure does not dent its electoral support which stands at  23% with Labour on 24% and the Conservatives on 22%. Politically there is no real difference between the Conservative Party and Reform, they’re both pro-oil and they often try to out do each other appealing to anti-Muslim, anti-immigration and anti-trans sentiments. It is very likely that these two parties will cooperate at the next election resulting in a victory for the far right but this outcome is not certain.

Despite recent strike waves and popular support for social policies that benefit the working classes no new mass worker’s party has emerged in the UK after the Labour Party’s shift to the hard right under Starmer. Leading left parliamentarians like Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have sat on the fence muttering about a new political vehicle but nothing has yet to emerge. While the Green Party of England and Wales  has moved to the left with a membership that is typical of the skilled working and middle classes it is failing to amplify its presence with campaigning work outside of the electoral cycle. Considering the potential threats of a far right UK government you’d expect the transformative and revolutionary left to be heavily involved in united front movements and campaigns, if they can consolidate their forces and work together with enthusiasm they should be able to shift the public discourse in a more progressive direction, the potential is definitely there.

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage is close to Donald Trump.

Another possible factor is the US class struggle, Reform UK has a base of white working class and petite bourgeois support that looks up to Trump recognizing his unvarnished racist agenda while also sharing his rejection of the liberal elites. Their faith will be deeply shaken by popular mass movements against the Trump regime and Trump’s policies are also going to damage the UK economy. Nigel Farage has been trying to distance himself from Trump which has divided the UK’s far right.

(I asked whether there is a chance that Starmer could reach a bilateral trade deal with Trump and whether that could include the opening up of the NHS to private US health companies.)

Wes Streeting, the health minister and Starmer have both accepted large donations from private health care interests from the US and elsewhere but Wes Streeting has just DOGED the National Health Service’s administrative setup with tens of thousands of redundancies in the pipe line so the chaos of adapting to these cuts will block future privatisations in the short term but poor administration of NHS services will be used as an excuse for privatisation eventually. There will be no scope for price increases for US drug sales to the NHS, prescription charges going up really would be the final straw that destroys UK consumer confidence which has already been damaged by long NHS waiting lists for operations, with many middle aged and elderly patients saving and not spending so that they can afford to go private with these operations.