Author Archives: Tushar Aneja

As Reform continues to lead the polls, we are witnessing a movement that mirrors Trump’s MAGA movement in the US, unlawfully arresting, detaining, and sometimes deporting non-white residents, including U.S. citizens and legal residents. What we’re seeing from this administration is an attempt to ethnically cleanse the country of non-white people. With the clear ties between Farage and MAGA, Reform is not just any political rival. Their ascent to government would initiate a direct assault on British democratic values. It won’t be long before non-white British residents and citizens are targeted in the same way.

A Reform government is existentially dangerous because our democratic institutions and guardrails are uniquely vulnerable to an authoritarian takeover. Whilst the UK prides itself on stability, structural features like FPTP allow an extremist minority to seize absolute power with as little as 30% of the vote. That is fundamentally undemocratic. When you combine that with a House of Lords that lacks democratic legitimacy and an uncodified constitution that relies on the “good chaps” theory of government, our long-standing constitutional crisis fosters a ripe environment for a demagogue to bypass the traditional norms and conventions that hold our democracy together. More precisely, Reform and the Conservatives have already pledged to repeal the Human Rights Act and withdraw from the ECHR; the core risk is that a Reform or Reform/Conservative coalition could secure a substantial parliamentary majority with a voteshare below 50%. This simple majority would then be used to push through an authoritarian power grab similar to what we’re seeing in the US.