From “Ugly Duckling” to “Reform”: Explaining the Marginalisation and Resurgence of Britain’s Right-Wing Populist Parties

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-487-7_18How to use a DOI?

Keywords

right-wing populism; Reform UK; media visibility; working-class support

Abstract

This paper explores the historical marginalization and recent resurgence of right-wing populist (RWP) parties in Britain, analyzing the factors that have shaped their trajectory. Post-WWII, British RWP parties faced persistent marginalization due to their historical associations with fascism, the co-optation of populist issues by mainstream parties and the institutional barriers of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system, which systematically underrepresented minor parties. In recent years, Reform UK has emerged as a significant force, leveraging media visibility to overcome the “psychological effect” of FPTP and attract voters who view it as a viable alternative. Its support base primarily consists of working-class voters disillusioned with mainstream parties’ neoliberal policies and perceived betrayal of traditional constituencies. Reform UK has also prioritized institutionalization, expanding membership, establishing local branches, and professionalizing its structure. While FPTP still skews seat distribution against it, declining loyalty to mainstream parties has created space for RWP growth. The paper concludes that whether Reform UK can sustain its rise depends on its ability to transform protest votes into a stable party identity.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Duoyao Zhang
AU  - Xin Luo
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/11/10
TI  - From “Ugly Duckling” to “Reform”: Explaining the Marginalisation and Resurgence of Britain’s Right-Wing Populist Parties
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Digital Technology and Educational Psychology (DTEP 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 194
EP  - 210
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-487-7_18
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-487-7_18
ID  - Zhang2025
ER  -