Don’t be fooled by Reform’s latest rally – it’s nothing but pure anti-migrant malice

Nigel Farage’s public meeting in my home city of Birmingham on Friday must be opposed – and Keir Starmer must stop chasing Reform in a toxic race to the bottom on immigration, writes former Labour MP Zarah Sultana

In 1968, Enoch Powell delivered his notorious “Rivers of Blood” speech, warning that soon “the Black man will have the whip hand over the white man”.

He was speaking at a Conservative Association meeting in Birmingham – the city I was born in – and his tirade against immigration emboldened racists across Britain. Then, as now, racist violence did not emerge in a vacuum; it was enabled and propagated from the top. In the years that followed, the National Front marched through our streets, so-called “p**i-bashing” became a national sport, and a wave of racist murders devastated our communities.

Like many south Asian migrants in the Midlands, my granddad worked in a foundry in Tipton, where he endured low pay and appalling conditions. His generation already suffered racist abuse that included slurs in the streets, faeces pushed through letterboxes, and attacks by gangs. Powell’s speech, coupled with inflammatory newspaper headlines that targeted Black and Asian communities, intensified this hostility. These migrants played a crucial role in rebuilding Britain after the war yet their contributions were barely acknowledged – and too often remain unrecognised today.

But our communities were never passive victims. They fought back, organising to protect themselves and to challenge the politicians and media who fanned the flames of bigotry and xenophobia. Sadly, that fight is far from over.

Last summer, history repeated itself in the wake of the Southport murders. As disinformation was spread about the killer, mosques, homes and businesses were attacked, and Black and Asian people were assaulted in the streets. Many feared for their lives. It was the worst outbreak of racist violence in my living memory – and the toxic atmosphere that fuelled it has not disappeared.

Far-right rhetoric is creeping into the mainstream with the backing of billionaires, MPs, TV channels and social media platforms. Reform UK is surging in the polls. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, amplifies Tommy Robinson and performs “Nazi salutes”. In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) doubled its votes and came second in the general election while the centre-left SPD suffered its worst result in a century.

‘History shows that parroting the right-wing playbook only strengthens the far right. Voters tend to prefer the original to the copy’ (AFP via Getty)

Instead of confronting this threat head on, our government is pandering to Reform by engaging in a race to the bottom on immigration – even recently adopting Reform-style branding and videos to boast about deportations. But history shows that parroting the right-wing playbook only strengthens the far right. Across Europe, centre-left parties that have tried this strategy didn’t stop their opponents but empowered them. Voters tend to prefer the original to the copy.

Defeating the far right requires dismantling its ideas, exposing its faux anti-establishment image and offering a real alternative to its politics of hatred and division.

Despite its populist facade, Reform is deeply wedded to the establishment. It is bankrolled by billionaires and led by ex-banker public schoolboys. Its leader openly claimed to be the only politician in Britain “keeping the flame of Thatcherism alive” – the same Thatcherism that decimated pit villages and post-industrial towns across the Midlands.

Its MPs profess to speak for the working class, yet they vote against workers’ interests in parliament. Meanwhile, they bend over backwards for the elites who fund them, and their rhetoric on Muslims and migrants actively puts our communities in danger.

We’ve seen where this leads. Long before last year’s riots, conspiracy theories about a Muslim takeover of Britain had become primetime TV. Suella Braverman claimed “Islamists were in control” – this despite her having been home secretary until recently – and smeared demonstrations supporting Palestine as “hate marches”. Reform’s first MP, Lee Anderson, accused London’s Muslim mayor of being “controlled by Islamists”, while Nigel Farage took to the airwaves to declare that British Muslims don’t share “British values”.

These moral panics are malicious and manufactured and do nothing to address real issues facing working-class communities. They won’t put food on the table, lower bills or fix our economy. Their only purpose is to distract from an economic system rigged in favour of the wealthy, while those in power deflect blame onto the poorest and most marginalised.

This week, Reform UK will follow in Powell’s footsteps by bringing their anti-migrant agenda to Birmingham. But they do not speak for us.

The working class in Britain is diverse, multiethnic and multifaith. We don’t need scapegoats. We need real solutions. We need investment in our communities, fair wages, strong workers’ rights, affordable housing, fully funded universal public services, a welfare system based on dignity and respect, and a humane immigration and asylum system.

I’m proud to be organising a series of events, starting in Birmingham, to oppose Reform UK and send a strong message: that we are the real opposition and we reject the politics of hate and division. And on 28 March, we will say that loud and clear.

Zarah Sultana is the Independent MP for Coventry South