As Reform gathers for its conference, momentum builds for ditching the European convention on human rights. It would be a disaster
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There will be fireworks and celebration at Nigel Farage’s party conference this weekend. Burgeoning membership and council seats as Reform UK tops 30% in the polls. Immigration is the boat that sailed him here: the more small boats arriving, the broader his wolfish grin. Prime inflamer of foreigner hatred that he is, black and brown people report what they call the Farage effect in a wave of attacks: Mothin Ali, new deputy head of the Greens and a Leeds councillor, was attacked with bottles while with his family last week on Cromer beach in Norfolk, and racist abuse was hurled at them. He said that Reform rhetoric was causing people to blame immigrants and non-white people for Britain’s problems.
As immigration powered the Brexit campaign, surely the most shocking Brexit failure for his supporters must be the rise in immigration that followed. No wonder Farage never mentions Brexit now that its disastrous effects have struck home with most voters: Bregret grips 61%, who say leaving was more of a failure than success, only 31% still say leaving was right, while 56% think it was wrong to vote to leave the EU. Who do they blame? The Conservatives and Boris Johnson top the list, with more than two-thirds (67%) blaming Nigel Farage, the Ukip outsider who captured the Tory party.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
