‘We Are Not Far Right, Just Right’

In the worst episode of violent disorder in Britain since 2011, a series of racist riots occurred across numerous towns and cities that lasted for six days between 30 July and 5 August 2024. The banners carried by far-right protestors announced: ‘We are not far right, just right’. The logic was to disassociate protest from extremism and to affirm that the cause was just, moral, and legitimate. Over a decade earlier, the English Defence League (EDL) had resisted being labelled racist and far right and asserted a similar sense of civil injustice. But as we saw with the EDL, the moral basis of the message was quickly exposed. In the case of the recent riots, no event exposed this message more than when a hotel housing asylum-seekers was set alight in Rotherham. Even though there was no formal far-right organisation behind the riots, there can be little doubt that local far-right activists and sympathisers championed the protest.