Patriotic English people with legitimate concerns about immigration living in deprived areas was the section of the electorate the Tories, Reform and Labour all went chasing during the general election campaign. For no discernible reason other than most racists know virtually all Bangladeshis are Muslim and it allowed him to combine dog whistle Islamophobia and straightforward migrant bashing, Starmer said “at the moment people coming from countries like Bangladesh are not being removed.” 

Some of those potential English nationalist voters Labour had hoped to win were on the streets of Southport last night, even though by the time they started attacking the mosque the press was already reporting that the man who murdered three young girls in the town was not a Muslim. This comes a few days after Tommy Robinson managed to get 15 000 of his supporters onto the streets of London in a demonstration that was three times bigger than one he organised at the start of June.   

The opening weeks of the Labour government have been greeted by a combative, growing, organised fascist movement, one which has been enabled by three of the largest political parties accepting the main things it says about migrant and asylum seekers.  

Data from the Church Urban Fund show that Southport contains some of the most deprived areas in England. If any of the rioters have been following the news, the two things they will have picked up about the new government’s plans for their families are that it will keep the two child benefit cap and their parents or grandparents are likely to lose their winter fuel allowance. They will have noticed that Rachel Reeves remains committed to austerity, notwithstanding her decision on some public sector pay settlement.   

Newly confident fascist movement

By wrapping itself in the union jack and reinforcing the racist message that migrants and migration are a problem, Labour has reinforced all the reactionary ideas that are held by a significant section of the white English working class. All people like former Labour MP Lee Anderson do is deliver the same message stripped of nuance, but is anyone really surprised he was able to start his political career in Labour?  

Labour won the Southport seat because Reform split off the most racist section of the Tory vote in an election where the party managed to shed almost half a million votes compared to 2019. New polling suggests that a third of its Black and Asian support was lost as well.  

A programme of austerity, nationalism and stigmatising migrants has failed either to stop the growth of the far right or even to persuade its supporters to vote Labour. It has emboldened British fascism and demoralised its opponents. Even the normally super upbeat Socialist Worker concedes that the fascists outnumbered the counter-protestors by about three to one.  

The fascist used the horrific murder of three girls by a young man as a pretext to get their mobs on the streets and they can, in their terms, see the riot as a triumph. Riots only happen in communities where there is a real base of support for the rioters and some level of organisation is required. With its offer of austerity and hostility to migrants Labour might be able to rely on the police to arrest a few of the rioters (link has distressing clip of a racist getting struck on the head and testicles by his own side’s brick) but they are offering no ideological challenge to those who influence them and no prospect of better lives. This is the ground on which Tommy Robinson’s ideas will flourish.