In a sharp rebuke that has reignited debate over rising far-right populism in British politics, former Conservative Prime Minister John Major has launched a blistering attack on right-wing party Reform UK, accusing the group of systematic scapegoating targeting Muslim communities and migrants.
Major, who led the UK as Conservative Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997, laid out his criticisms in a recent interview with The Independent, delivering one of the most high-profile rejections of Reform UK’s growing political influence from within the traditional conservative establishment.
Dismissing the party’s ideological foundation entirely, Major questioned Reform UK’s core identity: “What is Reform? It’s a ragbag really. What’s its philosophy? What’s its purpose? What are its convictions? I don’t know. Nobody knows. Nobody talks about it. I don’t hear lectures about the convictions and philosophy of Reform.”
The former prime minister argued that Reform UK’s recent electoral momentum does not stem from a compelling positive policy platform, but rather from widespread public disillusionment with decades of governance from the two main parties, Labour and the Conservatives. “Reform had nothing good to offer” and are drawing “wholly negative votes” because successive Labour and Conservative governments have failed the British public, he said.
Major went on to identify the party’s core unifying tactic: anti-Muslim and anti-migrant rhetoric. “But what positivity is there about Reform? What is their unique selling brand? It’s that they are opposed to Muslims and migrants,” he added. “And when that wears out, because that is the way they operate, they’ll find somebody else in order to be a scapegoat. They are certainly narrow in concept, nationalist in instinct, and hostile to those, in a quite crude way, who don’t actually agree with them.”
Major’s condemnation comes on the heels of a groundbreaking electoral performance for Reform UK in last month’s UK-wide local elections. Led by veteran populist figure Nigel Farage, the party secured more than 1,300 council seats across England, Scotland and Wales, and won full control of 13 local councils – marking the largest surge in vote share of any political party in the contest.
Multiple recent opinion polls and electoral projections now place Reform UK on track to become the largest party in the UK House of Commons following the next general election, a shift that has upended traditional British political dynamics.
Compounding the criticisms leveled by Major are multiple recent reports of inflammatory, racist rhetoric from newly elected and former Reform UK candidates. Last month, Middle East Eye documented several alleged cases of racist comments among the party’s newly elected council representatives.
In the lead-up to the local elections, the Daily Mail exposed alleged Islamophobic social media posts from Phil Tierney, a Reform UK candidate for the Chelmsley Wood council seat. One public post on X, formerly Twitter, had Tierney openly stating “I am Islamophobic.”
In another high-profile incident, Daniel Devaney, who initially ran as a Reform UK candidate for the Clayton and Fairweather Green ward in Bradford, was forced to step down from the party ticket after old racist posts resurfaced. Despite the public backlash, Devaney still won election to the council seat. His controversial posts included a threat to “blast [Muslims] off the face of the earth,” where he referred to Muslim people as “pure scum.” Devaney later issued an apology for the remarks.
The extraordinary rise of Reform UK, paired with widespread allegations of bigotry among its ranks, has prompted soul-searching across Britain’s mainstream political parties, with many figures echoing Major’s warnings that the party’s brand of exclusionary nationalism poses a fundamental threat to the country’s pluralistic social fabric.