THE British left has four years to stop the far right entering power, Stiofan O Nuallain of Trademark Belfast told the TUC anti-racism conference today.

Mr O Nuaillain noted that Labour’s win was not based on any rise in its vote, while Tory votes had gone to Reform, but said it gave the labour movement time to organise.

He warned against associating unions with defence of the status quo, saying pitching itself as the alternative to the way things are was key to far-right success.

Unite’s Aisha Malik-Smith recalled having a brick thrown her window growing up in Welling, then the headquarters of the BNP, and spoke of the shock of seeing racist slurs scrawled on walls on the news during the summer’s racist violence.

She said Unite was organising on the streets and identifying hotels being targeted by the fascists to organise counter-demos.

The session heard warnings from Italian and Argentinian trade unionists on how the far right won working-class support with the Argentinians saying Javier Milei had successfully weaponised divisions between organised labour and the larger informal sector.