EUROPE is now bedevilled by the rise of the far right. The racist marchers and street fighters came first, but in many cases now they are now also a political force, with significant parliamentary representation and even places in government.

Anyone who claims that Britain is immune from this process has not been paying attention. On the contrary, the current political trends here are all pointing in the same direction. Unless there is a conscious and determined effort to stop it, it will happen here, and quite soon.

Yet there have been widespread assertions that Britain is a beacon of hope against the rising tide if the right and far right. That was rather undermined when Keir Starmer recently went to visit to the Italian prime minister, whose own party used to describe themselves as “neofascist.”