Grand Theft UK – How the Far-Right took over our politics

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

• It’s Podmasters’ 10th birthday! Get an extra 10% off a year’s Patreon backing. Far-right politics used to mean street thugs, secretive meeting and the ever-present threat of violence. Now the far-right is in Westminster, suited, booted and hungrier than ever for power. How did a fringe ideology move to the mainstream? Author, journalist and expert on the far-right Daniel Trilling joins Zoë Grünewald to discuss how we got here – and whether we can stop Britain’s slide into extremism. • Buy Daniel’s book If We Tolerate This: How the British Establishment Made the Far Right Respectable from our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. • Back us on Patreon – www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Zoë Grünewald. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Tom Taylor. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's happy birth data podmasters this month.
0:02.7	The home of Oh God What Now, the bunker, American Friction, and all your favorite podcasts is 10 years old.
0:08.8	And to celebrate, we're offering an extra 10% off a year's support on Patreon.
0:13.3	Just follow the link in the show notes and help us keep going for another 10 years.
0:28.0	Welcome to the bunker, News Without the Nonsense.
0:29.4	I'm Zoe Grunewold.
0:34.7	Remember when Britain's far right was a handful of men in bomber jackets handing out leaflets?
0:38.7	Well, fast forward to 2026 and some of their old ideas are now politely discussed on breakfast TV. Deportation vans, British values tests, an open debate about
0:45.2	the Englishness of certain prime ministers. It's all gone respectively mainstream. So how did
0:50.9	fascist talking points make it from the street corner to the cabinet table?
0:54.9	Why has the political class spent the past decade scattering matches around a puddle of petrol
0:59.5	spelling out the word immigration? And is there any hope of putting the fire out before someone
1:04.5	burns the house down? Well, to guide us through this bleak but necessary autopsy of how the far
1:09.8	right infected British politics.
1:12.3	We're joined by journalist and author Daniel Trilling, whose new book,
1:15.4	if we tolerate this, how the British establishment made the far-right respectable as he traces
1:20.1	the rot from Westminster to TikTok.
1:22.1	Hello, Daniel.
1:22.8	Hi.
1:23.6	In your book, you argue that ideas that were once confined to the likes of the British
1:27.3	National Party are now mainstream.
1:30.0	We'll go into that in a lot more detail, but just talk to me about how particular respectable institutions,
	...

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