Far-right politics in the United Kingdom

Far-right politics are a recurring phenomenon in the United Kingdom since the early 20th century, with the formation of fascist, antisemitic, or Islamophobic movements. The far-right is an umbrella term that can encompass a diversity of ideologies ranging from populist to neo-Nazi. Within political science, the far-right is commonly distinguished between the radical right and fascism. In the UK, the radical right generally accepts electoral democracy while challenging aspects of liberal democracy, whereas the extreme right rejects democratic principles and includes fascist and Neo-Nazi movements. However, some scholarship identifies an historical and ideological link between the two groups, including Britain.

Early examples of far right politics in Britain was the formation of British Fascisti in 1923, followed by Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932. The best known episode involving the BUF occurred in 1936 when antifascists prevented the group from marching through the East End of London, as part of the Battle of Cable Street. By the mid to late 20th century, the far right subsequently became dominated by white nationalist organisations that opposed Black and South Asian immigration. Since the 21st century, far-right terrorism from the British extreme right has become a growing threat which includes cultural nationalism, white nationalism and white supremacist ideologies. As of the 2020s, scholars have categorised radical right parties in the UK as belonging to a subset of the far-right, distinguished from the extreme right.

In the 1950s, A. K. Chesterton founded the League of Empire Loyalists. The league would merge into the National Front (NF) in the 1960s, experiencing a rise in popularity and influence during the 1970s. The NF became the largest post-war far-right party, boosted by the Rivers of Blood speech given by Enoch Powell in 1968. In the 1980s, John Tyndall launched the British National Party (BNP), with both NF and the BNP maintaining strong opposition to non-white immigration. As the NF began its decline in the 1990s, the BNP found electoral success in local elections. In 1992 the BNP formed Combat 18, a neo-Nazi militant wing of the party, and by the end of the decade, Nick Griffin replaced Tyndall as BNP leader. During the 2000s, the BNP grew in popularity under Griffin. In 2009, the party won its first seat on the Greater London Assembly and gained two MEPs. Meanwhile, the NF continued its decline. The BNP reached an electoral peak in the 2010 general election with 1.9% of the vote.

The 2010s saw the rise of the English Defence League (EDL), National Action, and Britain First. With the EDL seeing rapid growth, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) started to gain popularity soon after, while the NF continued declining and the BNP vote share collapsed in the 2015 general election. Two years prior, UKIP leader Nigel Farage said that his party absorbed much of the BNP's former voters, with support peaking for the party in 2015. Former BNP members also joined the newly formed English Democrats and British Democratic Party. In 2017, UKIP lost their final MP with Farage departing the party the following year. In 2019 he launched the Brexit Party, which renamed to Reform UK in 2021, and won five seats in the 2024 general election.

In 2020, Europol reported that the UK had the highest number of far-right terrorist attacks and plots in Europe during the previous year. That same year, National Action became the first far-right group proscribed under the Terrorism Act, and the first banned since the Second World War, and the white nationalist group Patriotic Alternative (PA) was established, later splitting to form the Homeland Party in 2023. The following year, far-rights riots occurred in England and Northern Ireland, the worst disorder in the UK in over a decade, involving racist attacks, arson, and looting. 2025 then saw anti-immigration protests and a flag-raising campaign, supported by far-right groups and individuals including Britain First and EDL founder Tommy Robinson, among new political parties Advance UK and Restore Britain splitting from Reform UK.