Turning the Tide on the Rage Wave? Nigel Farage’s Explicit Politics of Race and Violence Could Cost Him

Andy Burnham’s victory in the Makerfield by-election indicates that a ‘politics of hope’ may yet be possible to counterweight the far-right normalisation now found in the mainstream, writes Adam Bienkov

Protestors and riot police clashed this month in Southampton after the sentencing of Henry Nowak’s killer Photo: SOPA/Alamy

Something has broken in British politics.

For decades, an unofficial cordon sanitaire separated the right and far-right in Westminster. The politics of race, although subtly exploited by parties of the right, was always kept just beyond the line.

From the days of Edward Heath to David Cameron, the Conservative Party was determined to maintain this separation. Even when engaging in ‘dog-whistle’ anti-migrant rhetoric, it understood the danger of straying too far into explicitly race-based politics. The line may have become strained, but it never fully broke.