A white supremist conspiracy theory infected UK politics, and no one noticed

What’s the story?

The Great Replacement theory, the idea that migrants are coming to erase white people and their culture, is back in a big way, thanks to the far-right – and not so far-right – in British politics.

The revival of this white-nationalist conspiracy theory is explored by author and academic Ibram X. Kendi in his new book, Chain of Ideas: Great Replacement Theory and the Origins of Our Authoritarian Age.

He tells Lewis Goodall the language of British politicians is already laced with the language of the Great Replacement theory – and so common we may not even notice it.

"When you hear terms like 'immigrants are invading the nation', 'diversity programs are anti-white','they're coming in and poisoning the blood of the nation', you're hearing the Great Replacement theory," Kendi says.

"These Great Replacement theorists argue that not only are they coming to replace but they're coming to take over and are engaging, according to these theorists, in the genocide of white people in the most extreme sense."

This was stated explicitly in a recent discussion on GB News, with the guest's "genocide" claims barely addressed by the host.

"It's one thing to demonise immigrants, Muslims, or demonise black people," Kendi says.

"It's another to say that they're coming to destroy you – and that is what Great Replacement theorists have said."

'It's easy for politicians to blame Muslims or Black people'

This isn't just coming from the extreme right in UK politics – it has been a popular touching point for Tories, once considered a more centrist party. This includes its leader, Kemi Badenoch, who has claimed that "not all cultures are equally valid".

"It's a racist idea, whether it's being expressed by a white politician like Nigel Farage or a black politician, like the leader of the Conservative Party," Kendi says.

He adds it is an easy route for politicians to blame a country's problems on migrants rather than expend any energy in getting to the actual cause.

This, he says, applies to both the right and the left.

"It's been easy for them to blame immigrants or Muslims or Black people."

"They don't want to talk about data because the data doesn't support the Great Replacement is happening.

"They respond and say, well, data doesn't matter, just look at how you feel when you see all these immigrants coming."

Are all politicians happy to leave people 'struggling'?

Kendi says that the widespread adoption of the Great Replacement theory in the UK not only leads many people into a racist, anti-migrant way of thinking, it also erodes trust in institutions and experts.

"This conspiracy lends itself to our conspiratorial age, and it lends itself to more people – as studies show – distrusting elected officials, distrusting the media, distrusting scholars," he says.

"When you distrust people whose job it is to tell the truth, it creates a condition in which you then start to make the truth for yourself, and you typically are more likely to do that through conspiracy theories."

And this isn't only true of politicians and officials on the right.

He says the left wing has failed to counter the rise of the theory, only offering itself up as a better solution to the problem than the right.

"Typically even leftist politicians, particularly on the centre left, have not been willing to engage in the type of policies that would radically transform people's conditions," Kendi adds.

"They want to engage in these gradual programs that keep people largely in the same particular state, so that people are still struggling."

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