France’s two-round municipal elections, held on 15 and 22 March 2026, have produced a verdict on the far right that is simultaneously a record performance and a strategic disappointment. The Rassemblement National (RN) and its allies made historic inroads across hundreds of small towns, yet failed to crack the major urban centres it had identified […]
Research and analysis
Respectability, ideology and networks – why Farage’s new adviser matters
Dr James Orr, a theologian and philosopher of religion at the University of Cambridge was last month appointed senior adviser to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party. Why does this matter? James Orr first came to prominence as a cultural conservative defending traditionalist values in debates over identity, nationalism, and religion, and later became one […]
Farage, Reform and the ‘Russia question’ that won’t go away
In the wake of Nathan Gill’s guilty verdict on multiple counts of bribery for taking payments in exchange for pro-Kremlin messaging, attention inevitably turns to Nigel Farage and Reform UK. For reasons both historic and structural, the case serves as a spotlight on the deeper question: how far have Russian influence operations penetrated British politics, […]
The Resistible Rise of Reform UK
The May election results were a warning, if one was needed, of the danger of an insurgent Reform UK. Sarah Pochin won the Runcorn and Helsey by-election for Reform with 38.7% of the vote. In the local council elections, Reform’s share of the vote hit 31%, enabling it to gain 677 out of the 1,650 […]
Traditional Britain Group – secrecy, elitism, and the far right’s academic mask
On Saturday May 10, 2025, the Traditional Britain Group will host a luncheon in London to replace its annual black-tie dinner. A veneer of cultural refinement will be retained but we may rest assured that the hard-right ideology has not changed. Searchlight previews the event and looks at the background of this far-right organisation What […]
Local elections 2025 – Farage surges and far right turn on Homeland
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has won control of at least seven councils in this week’s local elections. A party that often relies on dog-whistle racism and xenophobia will now try to control large swathes of England. These results make grim reading for anti-fascists and are an indictment of both Tory opportunism and Labour cowardice. Indulging […]