The Epping Photo and the End of Respectable Conservatism

Jenrick and Braverman now swimming in the same cesspool as Nazi sympathisers

When our winner-takes-all system rewards extremism over competence, even figures with neo-Nazi histories can end up brushing close to mainstream politics.

On 18 August 2025 outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Robert Jenrick, Shadow Justice Secretary and potential future Conservative leader, posted photos from an anti-asylum protest. In one image, veteran far-right activist Eddy Butler - a former BNP elections officer long linked to the neo-Nazi group Combat 18 - appears behind him. Butler later boasted on Facebook that he was “riding shotgun for Robert Jenrick, pretender to the Tory leadership.”

It was a small moment, but a revealing one: today’s Conservatives are flirting with the far right, and our winner-takes-all voting system is rewarding the spectacle.

The Great Degradation

The Conservative Party that once produced Macmillan, Thatcher, and Major has become unrecognisable. You may have disagreed with their politics, but they were serious leaders who commanded respect. Today’s contenders echo rhetoric once confined to the extremist fringes and appear happy to associate with advocates of the worst form of fascism.

Suella Braverman has spoken of an “invasion” of small boats and pushed claims of “two-tier policing”, language lifted straight from far-right playbooks and British National Party literature. Jenrick, meanwhile, has tied his political fortunes to extremist sentiment. In 2022, as immigration minister, he told Parliament he had “ramped up” hotel procurement for asylum seekers. Today, he rails against those very hotels - a cynical U-turn exposed in media coverage of his own words.

When challenged, neither Braverman nor Jenrick seeks to put distance between themselves and extremist support. Instead, they double down, claiming to speak for “ordinary people.”

The Poisoned Debate

Of course, not everyone outside the Bell Hotel was an extremist sympathiser. And, yes, many Reform voters do have legitimate concerns about housing shortages, wage stagnation, and crumbling public services. But these are problems that require serious solutions - not scapegoating migrants. Farage and his Reform UK party are attracting a steady stream of washed-up Tories, now posturing as anti-establishment outsiders, despite having played a central role in creating the very problems they now decry.

Crucially, Britain has not lurched sharply to the right. Surveys consistently show Britons hold moderate views on these issues. They want effective migration controls (a reasonable expectation of any competent government) but they reject the extreme policies advocated by this mob. The latest ONS polling lists cost of living (85%) and the NHS (81%) as top concerns, ahead of immigration. When do we ever hear Farage and Co say anything constructive about those?

Years of media failure to challenge lies and disinformation have dragged the frame of public debate - we wonks call that the ‘Overton Window’ - rightward, leaving casual voters with a distorted sense of where the country stands.

Farage’s Useful Idiots

No one benefits from this distortion more than Nigel Farage. Jenrick and Braverman present themselves as defenders of conservatism, but in practice they are clearing the way for authoritarian populism. By normalising the presence of activists like Butler, they make extremist politics appear mainstream.

At best, they are unwitting accomplices. At worst, Jenrick may be consciously forging a path to a formal electoral pact with Reform UK. He has been caught on record saying “one way or another” the right must unite - before later ruling out a pact. Either way, under First Past the Post, even informal non-competition could hand a minority the keys to government.

Democratic Renewal

The prospect of such a pact between Reform and a Jenrick-led Conservative Party makes the need for electoral reform even more pressing.

Labour’s 2024 landslide was the starkest reminder yet of how fragile our democracy is under First Past the Post. Keir Starmer won an absolute majority on just 33.7% of the vote; 73.7% of ballots made no difference to the outcome…effectively completely wasted votes. The same rules could just as easily propel Farage into power in 2029.

This is why the work of the APPG for Fair Elections matters: replacing First Past the Post with proportional representation; closing donation loopholes and ending dark money; and combating disinformation. These are not separate reforms, but interconnected safeguards. Each is a weakness that populists and extremist sympathisers exploit.

Unless we act, the Epping photo will stand not only as a snapshot of one politician’s misjudgement but as a symbol of how our broken system can deliver real power to authoritarian populists on a minority vote share. The choice is ours - but time is short.