Lefty outlet Hope Not Hate is now dedicating significant resources to trying to attack Reform UK. Its website shows a series of pieces claiming to deep-dive into the party. A sign of the success of Nigel Farage’s movement, no doubt. It would all be irrelevant, but for the fact that Hope Not Hate’s acolytes and former staff are now embedded at the top of the Labour government…
The bonkers outfit published its annual ‘State of Hate‘ report over the summer. The document claims: “Britain faces a genuine far-right political threat for the first time in our history, in the form of Reform UK… GB News is increasingly the mouthpiece for Reform UK… academic-turned-activist Matt Goodwin is playing an increasingly important role in supporting Reform, backed by a Substack with more than 70,000 followers.” All of which is standard political activity. The “genuine far-right threats” faced by Britain “in its history” surely include, er, some more notable ones?
The report follows the previous edition last year, which claimed to be “the most comphrehensive and analytical guide to the state of far-right extremism in Britain today”. It was greeted with incredulity after it named 64 (then) Tory MPs, including Neil O’Brien, co-founder of the centre-right think tank Onward. Other villains listed included, er, Lord Andrew Tyrie, who as an MP ran the archetypal wet Tory Ken Clarke’s leadership campaigns…
Hope Not Hate said: “It is now time to ask whether the Conservative Party is transforming into a radical or even far-right political party.” Did anyone tell them about the Tories’ record on mass immigration?
Hope Not Hate is now deeply embedded at the top of the Labour government – for example, one of its former directors, Anna Turley, has just become Chair of the Labour Party. Stay tuned for the Hope Not Hate Files…