Britain Is Not Broken: How Farage and Reform UK Are Selling a Dangerous False Crisis

Introduction

Britain is not broken. It is bruised, stretched and impatient with political failure – but it is not the collapsing nation that Farage and Reform UK insist it has become. Their project depends on something more emotional than factual: a permanent sense of crisis.

If the country is not on the brink, the central message of Farage and Reform UK loses its power. So the narrative has to be maintained – of uncontrolled migration, cultural loss, institutional betrayal and national decline.

This article looks at the Britain behind the slogans: the data on diversity and racism, the real pressures around migration, and the darker question of whether Reform UK’s crisis politics is now intersecting with external efforts to destabilise the UK.

A Diverse Britain Is Not a Failed Britain

The vision pushed by Farage and Reform UK is of a country “lost” to multiculturalism. The census tells a much less dramatic story. England and Wales remain majority white – over four-fifths of the population – while Asian, Black and mixed-ethnicity communities together make up roughly the remaining fifth, up steadily over the past decade.

Look at how the UK actually works and the picture becomes clearer. The NHS, social care, logistics, hospitality, construction, higher education, tech and the creative industries all depend heavily on workers with migrant backgrounds. Diversity is not an experiment that has “gone wrong”; it is one of the reasons the country still functions at all.

A modern, globally connected Britain was always going to be more plural than the 1950s postcard version that Farage and Reform UK constantly invoke. Change has been uneven and sometimes painful – but it is not synonymous with collapse.

Inequality Exists – but it undermines the Farage Narrative

To say that Britain is not broken is not to say that it is fair.

Ethnic minority communities remain more likely to experience poverty, overcrowded housing and discrimination in employment and criminal justice. Racially aggravated offences are consistently the largest category of hate crime recorded by police in England and Wales.

These facts matter. But they do not prove that diversity has “failed”. They point instead to a different conclusion: that Britain has never fully delivered on the equality it claims to believe in. Racism is not an inevitable outcome of multiculturalism; it is what happens when institutions and politics fail to keep up with the society they are supposed to serve.

Farage and Reform UK invite people to see inequality and blame the presence of minorities themselves, rather than the systems that distribute opportunity and power so unevenly.

The History Farage and Reform UK ignore

Britain did not simply wake up one morning and discover it was multicultural. The post-war state invited, recruited and, in many cases, actively advertised for workers from across the Commonwealth to help rebuild a battered country. The Windrush generation and others took jobs in public transport, manufacturing, the NHS and construction. I am born in Commonwealth Nation – Pakistan and this England has provided me exceptional research and work opportunities.

They arrived as citizens or subjects of empire, not as intruders. What they encountered was a mix of opportunity and hostility: colour bars in housing and employment, street racism, discriminatory policing, and a political system slow to recognise their rights.

Over time, anti-racism movements, trade unions, civil-rights campaigns and legislation – from the Race Relations Acts to the Equality Act – forced change. It was messy and unfinished, but it was deliberate. Britain legislated, campaigned and argued its way into being a more diverse society. The story told by Farage and Reform UK – of a multicultural disaster imposed on an unsuspecting nation – depends on erasing this history.

Illegal Migration: Real Pressures, Weaponised for Politics

A grown-up politics would admit that the UK’s migration and asylum system is under strain. Small boats crossings, slow asylum processing, poor accommodation, and the pressure on councils and services are real concerns.

But instead of offering serious answers, Farage and Reform UK turn a set of policy challenges into a story of national invasion. Boats in the Channel become proof that “Britain has lost control” and that the country is being “taken over”.

However, a functioning system would focus on:

• Efficient and fair asylum decisions
• Safe and legal routes that undercut smugglers
• Proper funding for councils and public services
• Enforcement aimed at traffickers and exploitative employers
• Long-term integration – English, housing, skills, work

Farage and Reform UK: Outrage as a Business Model

Nigel Farage presents himself as a straight-talking outsider. In practice, his politics is a blend of performance and permanent grievance. Reform UK operates similarly: not as a conventional party with costed programmes and credible timetables, but as a vehicle for channelling anger.

The pattern is familiar:

1. Identify a genuine problem – overstretched services, low wages, housing insecurity.
2. Ignore or downplay the long-term role of austerity, deregulation and structural choices.
3. Redirect blame towards migrants, refugees, or a vaguely defined “globalist elite”.
4. Use inflammatory language that erodes the line between criticism and scapegoating.
5. Offer simple slogans (“Take Back Control”, “Britain Is Broken”) in place of hard policy work.

It is politics tuned for television clips and social media, not for governing a complex country.

When Rhetoric Turns into Real-World Harm

There is a direct line between dehumanising rhetoric and real-world consequences. When migrants are portrayed as invaders, when multicultural areas are described as “no-go zones”, when the language of “taking our country back” is normalised, some people hear permission.

Permission to hurl abuse on public transport.
Permission to intimidate neighbours.
Permission to attack.

Hate crime statistics fluctuate with events and media cycles, but spikes have often followed periods of intense political rhetoric around migration and national identity. I have personally faced four hate crime in last five years in Leicester alone. Farage and Reform UK insist they are merely “telling it like it is”. That becomes harder to believe when their talking points show up on placards at far-right marches or in the social-media posts of those who engage in harassment and violence.

Reform UK is not Renewal – It is Resentment

Reform UK claims to be the force that will “save” Britain. But look at who is missing from the picture they paint.

Their imagined nation rarely includes the Black British nurse working double shifts, the British-Pakistani teacher helping pupils smash exam expectations, the Roma worker on a construction site, the Eastern European carer in a residential home, the second-generation Somali engineer in a tech firm.

These people are not external to Britain; they are Britain. They pay tax, raise families, support neighbours and keep public services running. A movement that constantly undermines their belonging while claiming to love the country is not patriotic. It is parasitic, feeding off division while offering nothing constructive in return.

For a more constructive, social-democratic critique of Britain’s direction, readers might compare this with the debate about Labour’s drift from its founding values on your own site in Has the Labour Party Lost Its Way?

Reform UK, Russia and the Question of Foreign Interference

The most alarming element of the Farage and Reform UK story is not just what is said, but who might benefit from it being said.

Donors with Russian-linked interests

Investigative work has shown that one of the largest donors to Reform UK’s 2024 campaign, investor David Lilley, owns significant Russian business assets. He donated £100,000 to Reform shortly after Farage announced his return as leader.

Separate reporting has highlighted that another key early backer, the H.R. Smith Group, sold components used by a Russian supplier, raising questions about the broader orbit of business interests aligned with the party.

None of this proves that Farage and Reform UK are simply puppets of Moscow. But it does underline how little we know about the deeper motivations of some of the people bankrolling their message.

Nathan Gill and pro-Russia bribery

The most concrete example of interference comes from Nathan Gill, former leader of Reform UK in Wales and previously a close ally of Farage in Ukip and the Brexit Party. Gill was sentenced at the Old Bailey to more than ten years in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of bribery for accepting tens of thousands of pounds to make pro-Russian statements as an MEP.

He was paid by Oleg Voloshyn, a pro-Russia Ukrainian politician now believed to be in Russia, to amplify Kremlin-friendly narratives about Ukraine in the European Parliament and in media appearances.

Reform UK insists Gill was only a supporter, not a formal member, and has condemned his actions. But the fact remains: a senior figure in Farage’s political universe was successfully recruited into a foreign influence operation.

Rhetorical overlap

There is also a pattern of rhetorical convergence. Russian propaganda seeks to depict the West as decadent, divided and on the verge of collapse. It encourages scepticism about support for Ukraine and portrays NATO expansion as provocation. Commentators have noted that some of the messaging used by Farage and Reform UK – particularly their framing of Britain as “broken” and their criticism of Western Ukraine policy – sits uncomfortably close to these themes.

Again, overlap is not the same as control. But it is a reminder that narratives about national collapse do not exist in a domestic vacuum; they intersect with the interests of states that want to see Britain weakened and divided.

A soft target

Anti-corruption campaigners have warned that the Gill case shows the UK remains a “soft target” for foreign interference – with weak rules on political finance, porous transparency and limited enforcement.

If a political project like Farage and Reform UK trades heavily on crisis, scapegoating and institutional mistrust, it becomes – whether wittingly or not – a handy vehicle for those who wish to corrode democratic confidence from the outside.

Britain Is Bigger Than Their Imagination

Despite economic hardship, public anger over failing services and disgust at Westminster scandals, most people in this country are not drawn to far-right ideology. They want:

• Fairness in immigration, not cruelty
• Equality before the law
• Decent public services
• Competent leadership

The audience for Farage and Reform UK is real, but it is not the whole country. As with your own analysis of the UK brain drain and the frustrations of working people, a different story emerges: one of people trying to build decent lives in spite of political dysfunction, not because they have surrendered to extremism.

Britain Is Not Broken – but it could be

Britain is under strain: inequality, a broken housing market, stagnant wages, an overstretched NHS, and a migration system that fails both refugees and communities. None of this should be downplayed.

But the answer is not to intensify fear, turn neighbours into enemies or normalise conspiracy-tinged talk of national collapse. That is the path that genuinely risks breaking the country.

Repair requires:

• Investment in public services and infrastructure
• A fair, functional migration and asylum system
• Serious work on institutional racism and inequality
• Political leadership that refuses to treat communities as expendable

Farage and Reform UK offer something else: a politics that runs on resentment, amplified by money and messaging whose origins deserve much more scrutiny.

Britain is not broken yet. But if we allow division – domestic and imported – to be sold as patriotism, it could be.

References

1. Office for National Statistics (ONS), Ethnic group, England and Wales: Census 2021 (2022).
2. Home Office, Hate crime, England and Wales, year ending March 2024 (2024).
3. Ethnicity Facts & Figures, UK Population by Ethnicity (2022).
4. DeSmog, Major Donor to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Owns Russian Assets (26 June 2024).
5. Martin Plaut, Major Donor to Reform U.K. Party Sold Weapons Parts to Russian Supplier (28 March 2025).
6. openDemocracy, Who’s Funding Reform – and Why? (12 June 2025).
7. Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, Former MEP Jailed After Accepting Bribes to Make Pro-Russian Statements (21 November 2025).
8. AP News, UK Politician Sentenced for Accepting Bribes to Make Pro-Russia Statements (21 November 2025).
9. The Guardian, Reform UK, the Russian Spy and Rolls of Kremlin Cash: The Inside Story of Nathan Gill (1 November 2025).
10. Spotlight on Corruption, Nathan Gill Bribery Case Shows UK Is “Soft Target” for Foreign Interference (21 November 2025).
11. Migration Observatory, Briefings on Migrants in the UK Labour Market (2023–2025).