Mass rally in London against racism, hatred, and the far right, August 2025 (Tayfun Salci/ZUMA/IMAGO)
Mamdani’s New York Win: A Template to Vanquish Destructive “Populism” in the US, UK, and Beyond
Why The UK Needs More Gary Linekers
Originally published on the Substack of the Muslim Council of Britain:
There is a dangerous comfort blanket in UK politics: the belief that Nigel Farage is just noise and one day he will fall.
His bluster will fade, voters will “see sense”, and decency will prevail.
But — like a certain businessman who is now the US President — Farage is not a sideshow anymore. After years of shouting abuse from the wings, he is the lead actor in the tragedy on Britain’s stage. The Reform Party has written the play from TikTok to our TV screens.
His dystopia is one of hostility to migrants and refugees, suspicion of diversity, questioning of Muslims living in Britain, and an obsession with border fortresses.
Those of us who care about pluralism, compassion, and the rights of all have not been prepared for his premiere.
Turning Cruelty Into “Common Sense”
Farage has built a career out of turning cruelty into common sense, offering simple polemics over complex problems, and speaking in a language that resonates emotionally with people who feel ignored.
He does not just criticize the “system”. He tells a story that makes people feel heard, even when his “solutions” are a wrecking ball rather than a return to England’s promised land.
Meanwhile, his opponents are still playing defense.
For years, campaigners have countered Farage-style populism with data, fact-checks, and moral outrage. We recited the stats: refugees are not a burden, immigration boosts the economy, diversity is a strength, and Farage is a racist.
True, yes. Persuasive? Not really.
Because politics is not won with spreadsheets but won with stories. And Farage knows this better than anyone.
It Is Not Enough to “Go High”
Progressives have clung to moral superiority as a strategy, repeating Michelle Obama’s famous 2016 mantra: “When they go low, we go high.”
But “high” has come to mean preaching to people who already agree with us in our feel-good echo chambers. It is a self-congratulation dressed as a strategy.
Farage, on the other hand, speaks to voters’ fears, frustrations, and sense of loss.
And guess what? He’s winning. Every incendiary comment he makes sets the media agenda. Every headline reinforces his worldview. Even those who despise him amplify his message.
While we respond with outrage, the demagogue reaps the rewards of being “the only one telling it like it is”.
Yes, the media is avoiding its duty of ensuring facts, analysis, and accountability. And Farage is thick-skinned, evading scrutiny while being given headline coverage.
A Different Narrative
We need a different narrative, one that goes beyond defending refugees and migrants to celebrating them, beyond listing economic contributions to offering a bold, hopeful vision of who we are as a country.
That requires a shift in tone: less technocratic, more human. Less reactive, more proactive — because Farage’s success isn’t just about the fears of immigration, it is about identity.
The irony is that it is the left and their allies who have largely abandoned working-class issues in favour of identity politics, creating a vacuum that Farage and his type were all too ready to fill.
While identity politics is important, it doesn’t unite communities or address the socio-economic grievances rooted in inequality – the issues driving much of the fear and frustration the far right exploits. People feel insecure about jobs, housing, culture, and their place in a changing world, and Farage offers them a target. In his narrative, refugees, Muslims and asylum seekers are not just individuals seeking safety but are symbols of a broken Britain “out of control”.
Farage gives fear a face, even as he plays at being in a pub with the voters. And unless we can offer a more compelling, inclusive story that addresses both identity and economic justice, fear will keep winning.
The politics of destruction hammers a simple message until it becomes “common sense”. On the other hand, we often speak in fragmented tones, weighed down by nuance and caution.
We cannot counter emotional populism with sterile policy speak (listen to Prime Minister Keir Starmer if you want to know how that sounds). We need a story that is grounded in people’s daily realities, their struggles with the cost of living, their longing for security, and their community pride. We need to link these struggles to a vision of solidarity rather than scapegoating.
We need to leave our echo chambers. The fight for pluralism will not be won on X, in think tanks, or in carefully crafted press statements. It will be won in conversations over tea, at football matches, in WhatsApp groups, and in community halls.
A Wake-Up Call
If no one else offers an emotionally resonant story about what Britain can be — of diversity, compassion, and the offer of real solutions to people’s insecurities — then Farage gets to write the UK’s play.
We cannot keep pretending this is a passing moment amid Farage’s conversion into cruelty and anger into “common sense”. Britain needs vision and clarity – a compelling story of who we are and where we’re going.
Labour, for all its talk of change, has been timid and defensive, offering little more than a watered-down version of Farage’s narrative rather than challenging it head-on. We need people outside the Westminster bubble and unafraid to shake up a stale political culture. We need to counter Farage’s populism with energy, authenticity, and hope.
This is a wake-up call.
Those of us who care about a humane, inclusive Britain have to get strategic, get organized, and get loud — not just in Westminster or on TV, but on doorsteps, at work, and in every corner of the country.
We must offer a vision that speaks to people’s hearts, not just their heads.
Because, despite being the man who lied throughout Brexit and somehow playing the Jedi mind-trick on us all to forget that, Farage is winning.
If we cling to the comfort of being “right” rather than being effective, he won’t just shape the debate.
Farage will define the future as Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2029.
As a natural centre-left voter, and a professed anti-theist, I find your far-left dismissal of the upswell of opinion against mass illegal immigration and its knock-on effects to be elitist, scare-mongering and wrong-headed.
You would do well to remember that try as you might to condone the avowed intent of Islamists to ultimately convert the West to Islam, (as an implied/stated aim in their hadiths/handbook), it has been, and will remain, a Christian country with all of its associated values.
The cult of Islam and its devotees are not accepting of these values – if in doubt, read their book again, as have I.
Farage is indeed quite an unpleasant character and an easy target for demonisation by the far-left so-called intelligentsia, and at the risk of an accusation of whataboutism, it is also sobering to watch Khan’s willful obfuscation in the face of standard questioning by his fellow assembly members.
Those who have worked closely with him generally attest to his unpleasant demeanor and arrogant intransigence – they surely can’t all be wrong..
You display a very one-eyed and indeed quite patronising view of how Joe and Joanne Public are being misled – they can actually think for themselves by and large, and do not recall voting for the hard-multiculturalism and erosion of infrastructure to which they feel the cities in particular are being subjected – they have had enough, judging by footage that of course does not make the televised news media, and will be voting with their feet next time.
Their political passivity definitely appears to be waning.
You must have seen the rise in popularity of our much-derided National Flag recently?
They can’t all be far-right racists, now, can they
(Bear in mind Islam is not a race – it goes without saying you cannot convert to a different race, try as you might.)
It seems the time has come for the average person to mobilise – the typical working person is now finally becoming politically active – some would say it is long overdue.