Yesterday’s General Election has demonstrated beyond doubt that our country is a profoundly Disunited Kingdom. There should be no whinging from the ‘right’. We have always known that the electoral system produces gross distortions. But until that system changes, we have to focus our campaigns accordingly.
That’s the message of the “ladder strategy” outlined in recent issues of H&D by nationalist veteran Ian Freeman. In yesterday’s election, Nigel Farage and Reform UK thought they could ignore that strategy and use American-style celebrity grandstanding to win seats from nowhere. Much of the media (and many voters) fell for Farage’s chicanery, but five seats for Reform UK are no basis for a revolution – given that Farage’s various vehicles have made no effort over many years to build a serious grassroots structure.
On the Richter scale of political earthquakes, 2024 ranks high. Excitable social media personalities on the ‘right’ – mostly people with little or no experience of electoral politics – spoke in ludicrous terms of “zero seats” for the Tories. Opinion polls encouraged the hype, suggesting the Tory total might fall as low as 50. In fact it will be just over 120.
Nevertheless, this is a staggering repudiation of the party that has been in government since 2010, typified by the stunning defeat of former Prime Minister Liz Truss in the formerly ultra-safe SW Norfolk.
While Labour will now be in power for at least five years, Starmer should be aware of critical faultlines running through the nation he seeks to govern.
Reform UK were the most obvious recipients of protest votes, but there were also stunning successes for (mainly Asian) Gaza-focused independents, as well as for the Greens.
While H&D readers will not need reminding that the racial nationalist movement in our country has been in the doldrums for well over a decade, and remains in a state of transition, there have been discernible signs of recovery. These were never going to be evident in tonight’s results. Rather, they represent hope for the future.
In Leigh & Atherton, for example, an excellent local candidate – PA activist Craig Buckley, standing for the English Democrats – polled 376 votes (0.9%). Most of the voters who agreed with Craig’s arguments voted instead for the fake anti-immigration prospectus offered by Reform UK, who finished runners-up to Labour with 26.9%. A very similar phenomenon occurred in the neighbouring Makerfield constituency, where Tom Bryer (another excellent PA activist standing for the EDs) also polled 0.9%.
By far the best result for any racial nationalist candidate was achieved by British Democrat candidate Frank Calladine, who polled 3.7% in Doncaster North – greatly helped by this being one of the few seats not contested by Reform. A similar advantage enabled William Highton to poll 4.0% for the English Democrats in East Grinstead & Uckfield. Elsewhere it was inevitable that, in the short term, other nationalist candidates would be overshadowed by the Farage circus.
Instead of reacting with despair, we should react with optimism. The good news in Leigh & Atherton was the total collapse of the Conservative Party, who fell from first to third place. In Makerfield and many other constituencies they fell from second to third.
The Conservative Party has been a dominant force in British politics since the 1840s. Ever since the transformation of the UK into a multiracial society, beginning in the late 1940s and accelerating since the 1960s, the Conservative Party has been the biggest single obstacle to development of a serious movement for racial and national renaissance.
It’s now apparent that this obstacle – the great Tory monolith – has crumbled nationwide at today’s election. Numerous ministers were defeated, including Defence Secretary Grant Shapps in Welwyn Hatfield, and Justice Secretary Alex Chalk in Cheltenham.
In the so-called ‘left behind’ areas of North East England, Reform UK made significant advances, overtaking the Tories to become clearly runners-up behind Labour, but the exit poll that predicted thirteen Reform gains was a gross exaggeration. We should recognise that Labour directed its campaigning resources away from its ‘safe’ seats. These are areas where the BNP polled well in the 2000s, and where if Reform UK were capable of building on their undoubted potential, they would by now have large groups of councillors.
The exit poll suggested that a candidate already dropped a week ago by Reform UK for ‘racism’ – Robert Lomas in Barnsley North – stood a good chance of gaining a seat. In fact Labour very easily held on to this constituency. Perhaps if Nigel Farage and his colleagues hadn’t sabotaged their own candidate, he would have stood a chance? Similarly in Hartlepool, the exit poll predicted a Reform gain and inexperienced Reform UK representatives at the count added their own hopelessly inaccurate assessments, but Labour easily held on.
Lee Anderson, the Tory MP who defected to Reform, easily retained Ashfield to become the first Reform success of the night. Nigel Farage easily won Clacton, but will he be looking forward to having Lee Anderson as a colleague for the next five years? Another of Reform’s big names, millionaire businessman Rupert Lowe, won Great Yarmouth to become Reform’s third MP after the Tories collapsed from first place to third. While in a tighter contest in Boston & Skegness, the even wealthier Richard Tice (who until Farage’s return was Reform UK leader) took the party’s total to four.
It wasn’t until late on Friday afternoon – long after Keir Starmer had become Prime Minister and started appointing his Cabinet – that Reform gained their fifth and final seat – South Basildon & East Thurrock – which they won by 98 votes after a recount. The Tories fell from first to third place in this Essex constituency. The winner James McMurdock is by far the youngest of Reform’s MPs, and is local to Basildon.
Elsewhere there were several indications of just how divided multiracial Britain has become. On a generally disastrous night for the Tories they managed a handful of successes based on racial and religious divisions. In Leicester East a Hindu Conservative, Shivani Raja, gained the seat from Labour, whose vote was split by two non-White former Labour MPs, Claudia Webbe and Keith Vaz. Shadow Cabinet member Jon Ashworth lost Leicester South to a Gaza-focused independent. In Chingford & Woodford Green, veteran Conservative Iain Duncan Smith survived because a Muslim candidate split the Labour vote.
It’s now clear that the Muslim rebellion against Labour has been more effective (in terms of seats) than the White rebellion. Asian independents won Blackburn, Dewsbury & Batley, Birmingham Perry Barr and Leicester South – and very nearly took even more sensational scalps, finishing close behind the ambitious Labour politician Wes Streeting in Ilford North and the celebrity backbencher Jess Phillips in Birmingham Yardley. After Jeremy Corbyn retained Islington North, the total strength of Gaza-focused independents will be five MPs in the new Parliament, the same as Reform UK.
There will be four Green MPs (up from one in the previous Parliament), after Greens gained Bristol West from Labour, and Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire from the Tories, adding to their old stronghold Brighton Pavilion.
The UK’s greatest political earthquake was in North Antrim, where Jim Allister – leader of Traditional Unionist Voice – defeated Ian Paisley, Jr., of the DUP, despite Mr Allister having been shamefully betrayed by Nigel Farage at the start of the campaign, when Farage unilaterally tore up a deal between Reform UK and TUV.
Jim Allister’s stunning success, and the parallel victory of TUV-backed independent Alex Easton who gained North Down from the much hyped Alliance Party, will surely signal the long overdue realignment of Unionism.
This website and the next edition of H&D will analyse the results and the new Starmer government further during the next few days.
We shall play our part in the necessary examination of where we stand as a movement, and how we can best move forward in a new political era.