Britain must push back against America's rising tide of fascism

Plus: Share our petition to ban Musk from the UK, all the latest from our award-winning team in the North, and hypocrisy and defections in Reform Watch.

American money, platforms, and ideologies are reshaping UK politics Pic: Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street

A shadow of greed, grievance, and violence has crossed the Atlantic – and guess who’s invited to dinner?

Donald Trump’s arrival this week has been dressed up in all the usual diplomatic pomp: tarmac handshakes, photo-ops, and platitudes about “historic ties.” Behind the choreography, Keir Starmer’s aides will be holding their breath, hoping the president woke on the right side of the bed and that journalists, distracted by the usual cascade of appalling headlines, let the absent UK–US ambassador slip by.

Strip away the photo-ops and the truth is clear: Britain is rolling out the red carpet for a man who embodies a new age of fascist-tinged authoritarianism, holding us hostage with tariffs and threats over our digital services tax while we swallow our principles in the hope of scraps.

While Trump plays statesman at Chequers, his country is seeing a stark escalation in authoritarian rhetoric. The assassination of far-right figurehead Charlie Kirk has rapidly paved the way for JD Vance, the Vice President, to declare war on the Left, threatening to “dismantle” institutions and groups that “celebrate” Kirk’s death, openly targeting journalists, TV presenters like Jimmy Kimmel and citizens who dare to question Kirk's legacy. Already, the US was descending into autocracy at an alarming pace, with the president deploying masked federal agents, threatening political opponents, and bypassing constitutional checks.

Could it really happen here? Not so far-fetched, if this past weekend is anything to go by. Far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson’s London rally drew 150,000 protestors — a scale that, while shocking to some — recalls the mass mobilisations of the far-right in the 1970s and 1980s. What's new is the role of American support: US donors like tech billionaire Robert Shillman have helped transform Robinson from a convicted criminal and fringe agitator into a “citizen journalist,” vastly amplifying his reach and influence. Shillman, a key figure in the transatlantic “counter-jihad” network, has funded fellowships promoting right-wing narratives, demonstrating how US money and ideology are facilitating a modern iteration of an old, dangerous movement.

American money, platforms, and ideologies are reshaping UK politics. Elon Musk’s video link to Robinson’s rally, inciting violence and far-right conspiracies, highlights the permeability of our political space, facilitated by technology and social media. All of this is cultivating a darker UK politics: shifting the Overton window, making the objectionable reasonable.

The seepage is not confined to the streets. Inside Westminster, currents are shifting too. Former Conservative MP Danny Kruger’s defection this week shows fundamentalist Christianity gaining a foothold, with restrictive views on abortion and a belief in the primacy of traditional Christian order echoing US evangelical playbooks. Nigel Farage’s recent remarks that “the most stable relationships tend to be between men and women” mirror the same refrain. Reform UK is actively courting American donors, including MAGA-aligned figures and religious conservatives, to shape its policy agenda and bolster its ambitions. Farage’s recent testimony before the US House Judiciary Committee, likening the UK to North Korea over the Online Safety Act and urging American lawmakers to pressure Britain, is a frightening example of these cosy relationships and the deliberate importation of US culture wars into Great Britain.

And then there is Jeffrey Epstein, the terminal virus of transatlantic corruption, infecting everyone who came near him. Former UK ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson was not just an acquaintance of Epstein; he was, in his own words, his “best pal.” Appointing him ambassador alongside Trump was a staggering lapse of judgment: either the rot runs so deep that no one blinks at these circles, or Starmer calculated Mandelson would speak the same language as Trump (allegedly also a signature in Epstein’s birthday book, which he denies). Goodness me, we are dirtying our hands before we even start. When did we become so comfortable with a politics defined by shadowy circles, unsavoury friends, and kompromat?

Tuesday's Commons debate on Mandelson may look like a Westminster theatre, but the consequences are far wider. In the US, the alleged “Epstein files” have become rocket fuel for MAGA conspiracies: proof, so the narrative goes, of a corrupt elite immune to accountability. Trump weaponised these narratives against the Clintons, weaving Epstein into the fevered mythos around Hillary’s emails that helped energise his rise. In Britain, each new twist of the Mandelson saga risks the same effect: corroding public trust, feeding stories of cover-ups and moral rot. That erosion is the soil in which populism thrives.

These threads – Trump’s bullying diplomacy, Musk’s incitement, Robinson’s rallies, Kruger’s religious zeal, Epstein’s shadow – are part of the same fabric. Together they pull Britain into a transatlantic current where money and power trump values, secrecy is waved away, and democracy is entirely disposable. The danger is not just that we mirror America’s divisions, but that we become complicit in spreading them.

What, then, is the answer? Britain cannot keep ducking this widening moral void. We must call out these malevolent actors for what they are: billionaire far-right provocateurs, racist agitators, and architects of disinformation. Robinson’s rallies are a serious threat, and must be condemned in the strongest terms. We must also resist the creeping influence of evangelical dogma in Westminster and confront (and ban) the dark money reshaping our public square.

Britain needs moral backbone, and that starts with our prime minister. The need to publicly, vehemently, reclaim our values of openness, tolerance, and democracy has never been stronger, and that means recognising that our true allies lie not in Trump’s America but in Europe, where shared institutions and values offer the only bulwark against this rising tide of fascism.

The choice Britain faces is existential: surrender to America’s darkness, or stand up, and chart a different path before it is too late.■

About the author: Zoë Grünewald is Westminster Editor at The Lead and a freelance political journalist and broadcaster. Zoë then worked as a policy and politics reporter at the New Statesman, before joining the Independent as a political correspondent. When not writing about politics and policy, she is a regular commentator on TV and radio and a panellist on the Oh God What Now podcast.

The Lead is keeping an eye on Reform UK and their fellow travellers. Get in touch on X, Bluesky and Instagram or email ella@thelead.uk with tips and stories. We especially want to hear from readers whose local council is now run by Farage’s followers.

• First up, a Reform UK councillor in Lancashire has caused bewilderment with a hypocritical video regarding the language used around Charlie Kirk’s assassination. As The Lancashire Lead reported, Councillor Graham Dalton, representing the party for Lancaster Rural North condemned language such as ‘fascist’ and ‘far-right’, yet followed that by describing behaviour from Labour, the Green Party and the Lib Dems as ‘straight out of the Marxist playbook’.

• In Wigan, it was revealed Reform candidate Lee Moffitt, who vows to reduce the number of Houses of Multiple Occupation [HMOs] in the town, owns a company which manages three HMOs.

• Funnily enough, Reform’s first London councillor, Mark Shooter didn’t just own an HMO, he owned an illegal, 14-room bedsit in Camden – which landed him with a fine – and a 33-person HMO in what was once a four-bedroom property. This was via the company he co-directs, Kingscroft Estates. The Londoner has the full story.

• In Wales, Reform is nearly neck-and-neck with Plaid Cymru in a YouGov poll on Senedd voting intentions. Plaid and Reform are the top two parties across all age groups. See the full breakdown here.

• Reform has also acquired its very first Labour defector. Mason Humberstone of Stevenage Borough said: “The party I joined is lost, without vision, and I no longer know who it is working for – too often it serves a metropolitan elite disconnected from the realities of the people it is meant to represent. Reform is the only party capable of delivering the change we need and of finally putting our nation and the British people first.”

• Meanwhile, Devon County Council has lost another Reform councillor. Angie Nash, who represents Wonford and St Loyes, said remaining in the party would “compromise my own principles”. Nash is the second Reform councillor to leave the party since this year’s election after Ed Hill, the Devon County Council member for Pinhoe and Mincinglake, was expelled from Reform in July.

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The Lead Digest

Here at The Lead, we like to consume just as much as we create, which is why we spend a little time each week rounding up our favourite stories, books, podcasts and films to offer our readers a sample of the work that informs our world.

Ella highly recommends journalist Taj Ali’s recent documentary for the Guardian. He went back to his hometown, Luton, to debunk Tommy Robinson’s narrative that it is a town divided. Ali speaks to numerous community groups addressing issues of poverty, crime, division and radicalisation. It offers a glimmer of hope on a bleak landscape and, as always, it’s great to see journalists with boots on the ground in the places they know best.

As a bonus, she also enjoyed Kirsty Major’s reflections on a trip back home to Knowsley, Merseyside, in which she discovered the town had drifted drastically towards Reform UK. Major appeared to have a very similar experience to Ella who visited her hometown, neighbouring St Helens, to talk politics with the locals for The Lead.

Zoe is advocating a much-needed switch-off this week – since everything feels particularly horrible – and says the new season of The Real Housewives of London is the way to go.

Luke, similarly, is “on a mission to read things that aren't about immigration”. It's harder than you think. So he’s gone incredibly niche and recommends this article examining why people sometimes invert their controls when playing video games (so down means up, and up means down, in basic terms), which has, fascinatingly, become a topic of cognitive research.

And Natalie is escaping into some dark, funny, vivid fiction. Retail Therapy is the debut novel by Jess Cole all about consumerism, survival, and self-worth in an era of economic decline set on a crumbling high street. It takes her back to the specific and strange retail ecosystem she experienced when she worked in Selfridges as a teenager.

At The Lead we have dedicated journalists and titles in Blackpool, Lancashire, Calderdale, Teesside and Southport bringing in-depth news and features twice-a-week to those communities. Do consider subscribing to support our vital local journalism.

• We would be bang out of order to not mention that The Lead North titles won Best Newsletter at the Press Gazette's Future of Media Awards. Judges praised our original reporting and efforts to rebuild a ravaged local news ecosystem.

  

  Natalie and Luke were there to pick up the award Pic: Press Gazette

• We have investigated – with blessing from his family to do so – the death of Alistair Taylor in Blackpool in some depth. Now, the role of the local authority in his death will be examined over three days at inquest. We had previously discovered and reported that Blackpool Council's behaviour in its dealings with Alistair had been branded 'insidious'.

• And from Leigh, Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen has been “taken advantage of” by Saudi businessmen, according to a union representing Teesside workers facing redundancies at a company owned by a Saudi company.

Thanks for reading our Thursday edition of The Lead, it’s great to have you with us. This weekend we will be taking an in-depth look at the state of childcare support with a double-header from contributor Scarlet Hannington. Tomorrow, Scarlet will be untangling the complex and crushingly expensive system, and how and when parents can access financial help. Then, on Saturday morning, Scarlet’s deep-dive feature reveals the parents driven to extreme measures to try to afford nursery – including the women scheduling their C-sections to help them get the most support. Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss either of these brilliant upcoming reads.

Ed, Natalie, Zoë, Luke, Ella, Padraig, and The Lead team.