New right-wing coalition in Great Britain: Dim look with PopCon

Great Britain's former Prime Minister Liz Truss returns with the “Popular Conservatives” coalition. Background: Nigel Farage.

Liz Truss was supposed to be the star of the event, but her performance was remarkably bland Photo: Victoria Jones/PA Wire/AP/dpa

London taz | After years as a political fringe fighter, right-wing populist Brexit advocate Nigel Farage is on the verge of a comeback. British newspaper opined in recent days that he is considering a return to the Conservative Party, having led successively the UK Independence Party and the Brexit Party, and is now co-founder and honorary chairman of its successor party, Reform UK.

Farage said he would be willing to join the Conservative Party after the next election Daily Telegraph. It depends on how far the Conservative Party moves to the right. Some believe he has a good chance of becoming leader of the Conservative Party after the election defeat.

Farage attended the Conservative annual party conference last October in an appearance by disgraced former short-term prime minister Liz Truss. Farage and Truss clashed again on Tuesday morning, when Farage – officially a reporter for right-wing private broadcaster GB-News – attended the launch of a popular conservative group founded by Liz Truss.

“Popcon” is the name of the new movement led by Truss' Mark Littlewood. “This is not about the leadership of the Conservatives,” he told a packed London event hall, “we will position ourselves as a real grassroots movement.” A bureaucratic elitist World Health Organization should be reduced to the European Court of Human Rights, where the influence of undemocratic decision-makers and “Davos institutions” can be reduced. Former Brexit minister Jacob Rees-Mogg was among those taking part.

“Democracy is not civilized”

Liz Truss was supposed to be the star of the event, but her performance was remarkably bland. “Democracy has gone out of fashion,” he said, seven weeks into office after his first budget proposal in the fall of 2022, seemingly taking revenge on those who contributed to his rapid downfall.

Considering a return to the Conservatives: Nigel Farage Photo: Victoria Jones/PA Wire/AP/dpa

Truss named, among others, the Budget Audit Commission OBR and environmental organisations. Unlike politicians, these organizations are not accountable or unelectable, said Truss, who wants to defend himself against hidden left-wing extremists and is “woke”.

“It's not going to be an easy fight. The left has been marching in our institutions, the corporate world for a long time, and they're marching globally!” By him, he means people like Greta Thunberg, or people who advocate for racial and sexual minorities and do community work. He said he would encourage them.

The backdrop for the right-wing attack is the Conservatives' still disastrous position in the polls, somewhere between 20 and 25 per cent, with opposition Labor confident of more than 40 per cent, so expect a landslide victory in the next elections. Nigel Farage's Reform Party has been competing with the Conservatives on the right, as has Ukip.

Temporary cancellation

In opinion polls in recent weeks, reform has risen above 10 percent of the vote. The right-wing party, which includes Trade Minister Kemi Badenoch and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, accuses Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of not being right-wing enough, particularly as he has not yet curbed the high levels of immigration in Great Britain.

Farage said before the launch that he could envisage a major political collaboration with Popcorn. But after the talks, instead of an outstretched hand, there was a temporary rejection from the populist king: he agreed with the Popcorn flyer and its goals, but only a reformed UK could deliver these goals in the upcoming elections, he said. And he said of the event: “Surprisingly, there were only a few sentences about immigration in the last hour. Perhaps popular, but not populist.