The House of Commons, London. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Britain is much closer to tyranny than you might think. Consider a recent social post by Zia Yusuf, a leading figure in Reform UK. He wrote: "Recent events demonstrate why I view the Tory and Labour politicians who created the burning injustice of modern Britain as traitors to their country. A reckoning is coming." He did not specify what those events were or what his reckoning would entail, but historically, those branded "traitors" have not fared well.
Perhaps British exceptionalism reassures you that authoritarianism cannot happen here. However, American exceptionalism once excluded the possibility of Donald Trump becoming president, let alone dismantling US democracy at an unprecedented speed. In just over 16 months, Trump has concentrated power in the executive, hobbled the media, attacked voting rights, politicised the federal bureaucracy, weaponised the justice system against opponents, and deployed the National Guard to Democratic cities.
An authoritarian leader could go further and faster on British shores. The UK has no codified constitution, no First Amendment-style protection of free speech, no state governments, and no federal courts. Parliamentary sovereignty means that any party with a Commons majority faces few obstacles to its agenda. The unelected second chamber can be neutralised with ease. Reform proposes replacing the House of Lords "with a much smaller, more democratic second chamber," but how it would be "more democratic" is intentionally left undefined. Its 2024 manifesto states: "Structure to be debated."
Successive governments have already built an authoritarian edifice for Reform to occupy and extend. For decades, anti-protest laws and so-called "anti-terror" legislation have strangled democratic liberties. Keir Starmer's government proscribed Palestine Action, an anti-genocide direct action group, as a terrorist organisation, leading to mass arrests of people—many elderly—for holding placards in support. Similarly, pro-Palestinian leftwing commentators Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur have been banned from entering Britain because, according to the Home Office, their presence "may not be conducive to the public good."
Reform's Authoritarian Blueprint
Reform plans to leave the European Court of Human Rights and repeal the Human Rights Act, stripping away legal protections against the state. It wants to create a British version of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the US deportation force that seizes migrants from homes, workplaces, and streets. In a far more centralised state, this force would oversee a mass deportation programme targeting not only undocumented migrants but also those with indefinite leave to remain. Foreign nationals in social housing would be deported. Yusuf boasts: "Our legislation will mean lawyers and judges will be powerless to stop any of it. Will be fun seeing the looks on the degenerate lawyers' faces when they realise this."
Reform would politicise the civil service, replacing its leaders "with successful professionals from the private sector, who are political appointees," as stated in its 2024 manifesto, while granting ministers the power to sack civil servants. The government would gain direct powers over the police and attack the independence of the judiciary, dressed up as a war on "activist judges." Reform demands an end to "two-tier policing," arguing without evidence that leftwing movements and minorities are treated leniently while far-right rioters and "white British people" are persecuted.
In practice, this means a Reform crackdown against the left and minorities. Reform is committed to banning pro-Palestinian protests, smearing them as "inciting hate and violence." Expect the same rationale to be used against other protests—including protests against Reform itself. Nigel Farage has demanded "Antifa" be proscribed as a "hate organisation." No organisation called "Antifa" exists; it is a convenient catch-all term for leftwing dissent.
Equality and Civil Liberties Under Threat
The scrapping of the Equality Act would trash core legal protections against discrimination. Farage declares that growing numbers of young Muslims do not share British values. It would be naive to believe that a ban on "all face coverings in public" and mass Muslim prayers near historic sites is as far as state-backed Islamophobia will go.
Yusuf threatened to defund Bangor University after its politics society declined a request by a Reform MP to speak. The party's 2024 manifesto pledged to "cut funding to universities that undermine free speech," a euphemism for institutions refusing to submit to hard-right politics. It will roll back voting rights, from restricting postal voting to removing voting rights from Commonwealth citizens, but don't expect it to end there. Recall how Reform claimed it had lost the Gorton and Denton byelection because of "sectarian voting and cheating," only for the police to find no evidence of it.
Britain would enter an authoritarian death spiral. People will inevitably fight against these intolerable assaults on democracy, and that resistance will be met with further crackdowns on civil liberties. Leftwing figures could face imprisonment for pro-Palestinian activism or for opposing British ICE raids, on grounds of violent incitement. They will face difficult choices: stay and fight, or struggle from exile.
Do not expect a minority Farage government to be restrained by Kemi Badenoch's Tories. They, too, support repealing the Human Rights Act, creating a British ICE, attacking the independence of the judiciary, and banning protests. Across the West, the so-called centre-right has collapsed. The postwar cordon sanitaire—the principle that the hard right should be treated as illegitimate—has been breached. In the US, few Republicans resisted Trumpism in the end. Britain's rightwing newspapers would cheer all this on. The BBC could be neutralised with ease, given that government controls its funding settlement, renews its royal charter, and influences senior appointments.
The demise of British democracy is not dystopian science fiction. This is not scaremongering; it is a rational assessment of the evidence. You have been warned.
