When Reform UK swept to power at Kent County Council last May, the victory was heralded as a populist revolution. After decades of Conservative dominance, Reform’s 57-seat majority promised a new era of straight-talking efficiency and common-sense governance. Six months later, that promise has curdled into farce. Leaked recordings, mass expulsions, and paralysed committees have […]
News
Has neo-nazi posted racist propaganda from jail?
The convicted nazi James Costello is due to be released on license from prison this month. And already his comrades in Patriotic Alternative are crowing about it. But his Telegram feed has promoted material which ought to give the prison service and the probation service second thoughts about his suitability to be let out early. […]
From Searchlight 25 years ago – The company they keep
At the Conservative Party conference in 2000, attendees were greeted by the sight of a Tory shadow minister sharing a platform with a leading far-right antisemite who claimed to speak for for Britain’s small businesses. In the November 2000 issue of Searchlight, Steve Silver and Nick Lowles revealed what was going on The Federation of […]
Desecration – how my dad’s war is being stolen by the far right
My father was a World War II veteran. Decorated. Medalled. He fought across continents against a monstrous ideology that threatened to engulf the world in darkness. For him, and for his generation, Remembrance Day was a sacred contract: a promise to honour the fallen by ensuring such a war would never happen again. He would […]
Respectability, ideology and networks – why Farage’s new adviser matters
Dr James Orr, a theologian and philosopher of religion at the University of Cambridge was last month appointed senior adviser to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party. Why does this matter? James Orr first came to prominence as a cultural conservative defending traditionalist values in debates over identity, nationalism, and religion, and later became one […]
Kent ‘Pink Ladies’ left red-faced at shrinking numbers
In September, local activists had only a few days to organise a counter demonstration to an event planned by racists and fascists trying to sow division in Dartford. On that occasion 200 far right congregated in Dartford Town Centre and the counter demonstration mustered 30. Two months later on a sunny November day last weekend, […]
How the Steel City humiliated the UKIP clown show
In the hours before the UKIP rally in Sheffield, a young man of far-right persuasions named Thomas Moffitt, known online as “Young Bob,” voiced his anxieties to a smartphone camera. Arrested recently in Birmingham and now a fixture of this fringe fascist outfit, Moffitt complained to his followers of being “kettled by antifa.” No public […]
The Canadian far-right agitator targeting Ireland
That extremists on the other side of the Atlantic have always had an eye on Ireland is nothing remotely new to those who have been paying attention. The anti-abortion lobby in Ireland has found great support from various groups in the US over the years for example. But with the proliferation of the Internet and […]
Britain First declares ‘massive victory’ after buying back their ‘battle bus’ at auction
Britain First have got their ‘battle bus’ back and are hailing it a “massive, massive victory” over Manchester police. It really isn’t: in fact, they had to fork out thousands at a police auction to retrieve it from the consequences of their own stupidity. Playground insults The saga began when party leader Paul Golding decided […]
Obituary: Sir Geoffrey Bindman (1933-2025), an extraordinary lawyer and a friend of Searchlight
Everyone at Searchlight was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Sir Geoffrey Bindman, who passed away on 4 November. Geoffrey was a towering figure in British legal and human rights circles. Over a career spanning more than six decades, he championed civil liberties, racial equality, and justice for the marginalised, leaving an indelible […]
Twice as many far-right referrals to Prevent as Islamist cases
Searchlight has argued before that the threat from far-right extremism in the UK now outstrips that coming from radical Islamists. Latest Home Office figures from the Prevent programme support that view. They reveal that the number of individuals referred to the programme for concerns over far-right extremism is more than double those flagged for Islamist […]
Artur Gold: the violinist of Treblinka
In the summer of 2013 I interviewed Samuel Willenberg, at the time the last surviving participant of the Jewish revolt at Treblinka, the Nazi death camp in Eastern Poland. During the interview, he reminisced about Artur Gold, the famous Jewish violinist, and leader of the Treblinka orchestra. He told me: “As we stood during evening […]
‘They’re eating the dogs!’ – Tenconi migrant rant sparks ridicule
UKIP leader Nick Tenconi has plumbed the depths of idiocy, even by his own cretinous standards, posting online a video filmed in Calais in which he speculates that razor wire surrounding a dog training park is intended to protect animals from being eaten by migrants. This time, not even his own supporters are coming out […]
Murderous arson attack on Irish refugee centre
A potentially deadly blaze at at an Irish refugee centre on Friday evening was deliberately started by masked men who broke into the building, set the fire and tried to prevent residents from escaping. The fire was started at an International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) centre in Drogheda, Co Louth, housing asylum seekers including families […]
College dumps Vice-Chair who marched with fascists
The Vice Chair of Exeter College of Further Education has been dumped from its board after being seen marching with fascists in Exeter last weekend. Patrick Tigwell, who was appointed to the Exeter College Board as a governor in 2022 and became Vice Chair two years later, was pictured on Saturday draped in a union […]
Farage, Reform and the ‘Russia question’ that won’t go away
In the wake of Nathan Gill’s guilty verdict on multiple counts of bribery for taking payments in exchange for pro-Kremlin messaging, attention inevitably turns to Nigel Farage and Reform UK. For reasons both historic and structural, the case serves as a spotlight on the deeper question: how far have Russian influence operations penetrated British politics, […]
Mike Cohen: The anti-fascist whose camera was his gun
Mike Cohen was one of Britain’s great Jewish anti-fascists, whose significant contribution to the movement came through his camera lens. He passed away in October 2002 at the age of 67, and with the passage of time I often think of Mike, convinced that he deserves to be remembered. Mike came from a time when […]
Danny Tommo’s wet weekend in Southampton
It was a wet weekend for the Southport riot-inciter Danny Tommo, one of Tommy Robinson’s closest mates. After doing his level best to wind things up in Southampton he ended on Sunday distinctly the worse for wear – soaked in urine and pepper sprayed by the police. Riot inciter Tommo – a convicted kidnapper – […]
Unholy alliance as Reform UK in Exeter cosy up to Britain First
Reform UK’s Exeter branch is under growing pressure to explain itself as some its most prominent local figures are associating – both online and on the ground – with the openly fascist Britain First. Last Saturday Exeter witnessed the first far-right mobilisation in the city since the English Defence League’s appearance in 2013. Though the […]
The Russian spy network that targeted Brexit Party MEPs
When Anton Shekhovtsov, a Ukrainian researcher of Europe’s far right and a former Searchlight contributor, published his forensic 2021 study “The Niedźwiecki case: The Rise and Fall of a Polish Agent of the Kremlin Influence”, it appeared at first glance to be a niche story about a Polish activist accused of espionage. But also featuring […]