'It's our politicians and the mainstream UK media that have put a target on the backs of black and brown communities.

The UK has been hit by a wave of far-right violence and intimidation in recent weeks. While some commentators have sought to present this as a emerging from nowhere, it is clear that increasingly divisive rhetoric and policies pushed by the media and right-wing politicians has contributed to it.

A new video from the anti-poverty NGO War on Want has explained this perfectly. In the video, the organisation’s executive director Asad Rehman sets out the role sections of the mainstream media and politics have played in fuelling the far right.

“It’s not only the far right or fascists such as Tommy Robinson and the English Defence League who are responsible, or even Elon Musk and social media platforms like X who are amplifying hatred”, Rehman says in the video.

He continues by saying: “It’s our politicians and the mainstream UK media that have put a target on the backs of black and brown communities. Former UK prime ministers, countless home secretaries have demonised the Muslim community and pinned the failures of their policies onto migrant minority communities.

“Politicians have fuelled Islamophobia and anti-migrant racism. And rather than challenging divisive, racist figures, the media have platformed and amplified them. They have made racism acceptable again.

“But the truth has always been that when politicians play the race card, it’s minority communities who pay the price. It’s the political decisions of those in power that have created a breeding ground for fascism and racism, decisions which have widened inequality and deepened poverty through precarious and low paid work, a lack of housing and austerity measures that have gutted communities.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

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