Skip to main content
Research

Far right in 'disarray' university expert tells influential think tank

20 April 2015

 

A Teesside University Professor whose research focuses on historic and contemporary fascism has contributed to a national report examining the issue of race in the upcoming general election.

Professor Nigel Copsey was asked to give his expertise and insight to the Runnymede Trust’s Race and Elections report.

Runnymede is the UK’s leading independent think tank on race equality and race relations.

Its latest report, edited by Omar Khan and Kjartan Sveinsson and featured in The Guardian newspaper, investigates the role that race will play in the election and beyond in terms of the political landscape of the country.

Findings suggest that the Conservative Party could lose as many as nine seats if they fail to attract ethnic minority votes.

Professor Copsey was asked to contribute a chapter about Britain’s far right. For more than 20 years, Professor Copsey has researched the far right and he is Co-Director of Teesside University’s unique Centre for Fascist, Anti-Fascist and Post-Fascist Studies.

Professor Copsey argues that now, more than ever, Britain’s far right is in disarray, with the British National Party (BNP) floundering since 2010 with the rise of UKIP and the headline grabbing activities of the English Defence League (EDL).

'The outcome of the 2015 general election remains impossible to predict. Yet when it comes to the far right, one thing is absolutely certain; its impact at the ballot box will be negligible,' explained Professor Copsey.

'But we must see the bigger picture. Its history reads like a classic case of abject political failure but there is much more to be said about Britain’s far right fringe than its interminable inability to make a serious challenge for representation in Westminster.'

Professor Copsey’s new book Cultures of Post-War British Fascism, co-edited with Dr John Richardson, was published in April 2015.


 
 
 
Go to top menu