Dear John,

Moments of crisis have a tendency to expose people’s true motivations. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump over the weekend not only altered the course of US history, but exposed what Farage and others on the British right really care about.

Soon after that bullet grazed the ear of the former US president (and would-be ([link removed]) dictator), Farage decided he didn’t want to play MP in Clacton anymore. He jetted off immediately to the Republican convention in Milwaukee, a strongman’s lieutenant dutifully heeding a call-to-arms. Despite the authoritarian figure he cuts at home, Farage immediately bent his knee to his political mentor in the States.

It wasn’t just Farage either. The UK’s shortest-serving PM, Liz Truss, also made a public showing at the convention, praising Trump’s “strength and fortitude” and claiming he offered “the leadership the West needs”. To be fair, at least she no longer has a constituency to neglect.

This bizarre political moment serves as a reminder that the UK’s rising far-right is less a native phenomenon, and more an out-growth of Trumped-up American populism. The heart of Farage and Truss’ ideological movement lays not in Clacton or Norfolk, but in the American rustbelt and the boardrooms of astronomically wealthy US corporations and billionaires.

So what does that tell us about their priorities? Truss has already played her cards and lost badly. But Farage, who is very much still in the game, ([link removed]) may go to extreme lengths in service of his commanders across the Atlantic.

The Heritage Foundation think-tank (a Liz Truss and Trump favourite) set out an agenda in Project 2025 ([link removed]) that, if implemented, could become a global playbook for right-wing populists like Farage. Consolidation of executive powers. Dismantling the civil service and replacing it with political ideologues. The utter destruction of public services and consumer protections.

Many of these ideas were already soft-launched during the Johnson years – in large part thanks to the influence of the Brexit party. But if Farage consolidates power at the next election, aided by an untethered Trump administration overseas, the US’ Project 2025 could become our Project 2029.

Under FPTP, Farage could potentially do it with under a third of the vote. If he successfully hijacks the core political base of the British right, our unregulated campaigning environment will provide him with the cash and opportunities he needs to take a terrifying swipe at No. 10.

Labour has a responsibility to level the playing field, and at least make him fight fair. We’re constantly reminding them of the duty they have to push back against the new and terrifying international right-wing movement, a force that threatens to put an end to democracy as we know it. We won’t let it happen.

All the very best,

Matt Gallagher

Communications Officer, Open Britain
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