Draft:Britain First Movement

The Britain First Movement or the British Nationalist Movement is a right-wing populist to far-right nationalist umbrella movement in the United Kingdom primarily based in England. The movement is caused by large anti-immigration sentiment. The movement  is also called the MEGA (Make England Great Again) or the  individuals British Patriots. The movement is among a wave of right-wing, Identitarian, anti-globalist sentiment in Europe and the West.

Origin

Enoch Powell

The ideas Britain First movement can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s when Conservative Enoch Powell spoke out against mass migration to the United Kingdom. Powell's ideas resonated with a large part of the British population and he remained a respected figure until he died. Far-Right groups like the National Party, British National Party were at the peak of their popularity but declined in the 90s. Most of the opposition for immigration came from low income working class regions and older more conservative generations. Many in the working class feared immigration from Britain's former colonies would create job competition and conservatives worried it would create cultural and social change.

The years of Labour's Tony Blair saw a increase in immigration. Blair passed laws such as the Human Rights Act and Immigration and Asylum Act in 1998 and 1999 respectively which eased the immigration process for new arrivals. Net migration rose from 50,000 in 1997 to over 200,000. Many immigrants came from Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe thanks to EU enlargement. The largest amount of immigrants came in 2002 with over 80,000 applications. The Iraq War led to increased illegal immigration and asylum applications from Iraq due to the country's instability. This led to increased opposition to immigration which continued into the Great Recession. David Cameron pledged to reduce immigration to less that 100,000 a year. However Cameron's Conservatives failed massively with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reporting a net flow of 298,000 migrants between September 2013 and 2014, a 88,000 increase from 210,000 last year.

The 2015 Migration Crisis

Opinion polling for the EU Parliamentary election in the UK, 2014

2015 marked the start of the Migration Crisis. At the start public support for the new arrivals was high due to media broadcasting of the suffering of the migrants. Millions came in post 2015 with a temporary pause due to Covid 19. However pubic sympathy began to wane following a wave of Muslim extremism in the form of Muslim patrols, and calls for Sharia Law by some radical clerics. This was when Tommy Robinson began to gain increasing attention due to his activism against Islamic migration. Robinson founded the right-wing English Defence League (EDL) in 2009. The EDL was a street protest group that protested mass migration and Islamisation. In response to the Muslim Patrols the EDL set up "Christian Patrols". Robinson and his group were labeled "far-right" and "racists" however Robinson allowed Indians, Sikhs, Jews, and others to speak and join his events. At the same time Nigel Farage and his right-wingUKIP party preformed well in the 2014 EU Parliamentary Election. This was mirroring a wave of right-wing backlash in Europe with parties and movements like PEGIDA, the Identitarians, and the AFD increasing in popularity (although PEDGIA and the Identitarians failed to gain traction in the UK) which was increased due to the Manchester Arena bombing. The election of Donald Trump who was a friend of Farage emboldened the right-wing movements in Europe as the US shifted to an anti-globalist position.

Brexit Movement and the Return of Labour

UK 2024 election chart

The migration crisis caused a wave of calls to leave the EU which was seen as preventing the UK from tackling the crisis. In 2018 Farage left UKIP to found the Brexit Party (a predecessor to Reform UK). Farage want his new party to be a more moderate right-wing party and to disavow Robinson to promote Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May failed to push a Brexit vote through parliament and resigned. Boris Johnson pledged to leave the EU with or without a deal. Johnson's attempts to force Brexit caused a political crisis in the 2019 UK prorogation controversy. Despite this Johnson signed the Brexit agreement on the 24th of January 2020 with the EU which was effective on February 1st. After this a series of scandals Boris Johnson resigned and after a leadership election was replaced by Liz Truss who resigned after 50 days in office. Rishi Sunak took over as prime minister now dealing with a economic crisis and mass migration. The Conservatives were unpopular after economic mismanagement and failure to complete promises to reduce immigration so Labour's Keir Starmer won in a landslide. Farage since 2019 renamed his party to Reform UK and he won a large part of the vote but few seats. Reform's success was in large part due to the migration of Conservative party voters to Reform.

2024-Present

Draping of national flags and monument.

Since 2022 X (formally called Twitter) under Elon Musk unbanned right-wing accounts including Robinson's. This has allowed Robinson to spread his message far and wide for the world to see. Musk has supported Robinson many times who he claims is being cancelled. The reelection of Donald Trump and a wave of right-wing victories in the West was praised by many right-wingers in the UK including Robinson. The Southport stabbings by a kid believed to be Muslim caused a wave of protests and rioting by right-wing and far-right groups which included burning of police cars and attacks on migrant hotels. Robinson after a sentence of 18 months on the 27 of May 2025. He was released with a full beard and claims of abuse. This later was by followed a mass march numbering on over 100,000 by Tommy Robinson called the "Unite the Kingdom Protest" in which a number of figures including Musk spoke, the march was met by a number of counter-protesters including Hope not Hate, Palestine Action, and Stand up to Racism who called to protesters far-right. Keir Starmer became increasingly unpopular as he was nicknamed "Two Tier Keir" (in reference to the alleged two tier policing compared to Pro-Palestinian protesters) and "Keir Stalin". The assassination of Charlie Kirk on the 10 of September 2025 was used to mobilize support for the march as well as support from Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Reform UK became the largest party in 2025 as Labour fell to 3rd place but suffered to resignations of Rupert Lowe who created the Restore Britain pressure group and Ben Habib who created the Advance UK party with the support of Robinson due to Farage not being in support of mass remigration. There is a alleged growth in the popularity of the right among young men as well as a limited return to the Christian church. Ongoing is Operation Raise the Colours which aims to raise national flags in towns. On February 13 Rupert Lowe announced the start of Restore Britain as a political party. Ben Habib expressed willingness for him and Lowe to join forces.

Ideology and Factions

The Britain First Movement is a right-wing populist to far-right counter jihad movement. Two groups have formed. Civic Nationalists like Robinson who support moderate legal migration and mass deportations of illegals and define Britishness by culture. And then there is the Ethno-Nationalists like Steve Laws and Carl Benjamin who want to have mass deportations of those (including some or all illegals) and high security for ethnic British people as they define Britishness by ethnicity. Some subscribe to White supremacy. Both subscribe to British nationalism and support a majority white Britain to some extent. Both groups are majority Christian and support Christian Nationalism, however among Ethno-Nationalists their is minor support for Neo-Pagan old Anglo-Saxon religion as Christianity is seen as a foreign Jewish force. Support for Israel is common among Civic-Nationalists like Robinson who visited Israel in 2025 and see it as fighting a common Muslim enemy. Support for Israel can also largely be found in Ethno-Nationalist circles due to opposition to Palestine Action but their is also more opposition due to a belief that Jews caused the migration crisis and anti-semitic Neo-Nazi conspiracy theories. There is mass opposition to Islam as it is seen as a destructive foreign force, that is seeking to conquer Europe. some circle blame Jews for the problems, but most blame globalist entities like the WEF, and UN that seek to destroy the identities of nations and create one world government. Individuals like Klaus Schwab and George Soros (who many claimed was hurting the British Pound in the 1990s) are a focus point for conspiracy theories that some claim are anti-semitic due to Soros being Jewish, but others point out that Israel is opposed to the Palestine supporting Soros. The movement is also anti-LGBTQ which is seen as a ideology attacking children however some claim to protect gays from radical Islam.

Political Parties

Britain First

Homeland Party

UKIP

Advance UK

Reform UK

National Front

English Democrats

British Democratic Party

British Movement

British National Party

Restore Britain