The Overton window: Why extreme views are going mainstream in the UK

Read time: 5 minutes

In brief:

• The Overton window is the range of subjects, arguments and policies that are considered politically acceptable in mainstream public discourse at any given time.
• Labour and other mainstream parties are failing to adequately challenge extreme far-right voices like Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk, often taking days to respond or avoiding confrontation altogether, which allows figures like Nigel Farage to appear more moderate by comparison.
• This rightward shift is being accelerated by billionaire-backed social media platforms like X, where far-right content and misinformation spread unchecked, while mainstream politicians offer no compelling counter-narratives or ideas.

What’s the story?

It was once completely normal that women didn’t have the right to vote. Homosexuality was a crime. Slavery was acceptable.

These are just some of the most prominent examples of how attitudes - and then policies - can change in the UK. Something that was strongly opposed by the majority, can become widely accepted, even embraced, within a matter of decades or years.

This happens when ‘the Overton window’ shifts.

It’s a phrase being used more commonly in news analysis as of late, most certainly on The News Agents, but what is it? And why is it so important?

The Overton window is the range of subjects, arguments and policies that are considered acceptable in mainstream public discourse at any given time.

Today, “the Overton window isn’t just moving, it’s galloping,” Lewis Goodall says on The News Agents.

Over 100,000 were proud to march alongside Tommy Robinson - a far-right, convicted criminal - at his ‘Unite The Kingdom’ rally on 13 September, with Elon Musk joining via video to tell the British public to “fight or die”.

This seismic shift in political sentiment would have been unimaginable as little as a year ago, and would have been met with outrage and condemnation from opposing political parties. But in the present day, it’s become almost normal, some might say mainstream.

How has it come to be that right-wing British politics, defined for decades by the Conservatives, has found a new home in figures as dangerous and disconcerting as Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk?

Has the Overton window shifted exponentially to the right? And if so, how did it happen?

Labour are in the “crouch” position

Lewis lays a great deal of the blame for the Overton window shifting so far to the right on the progressive left, the left and the centre-right, for not calling out Tommy Robinson and his extreme views for what they are.

The Labour government did, eventually, condemn Musk’s remarks, saying; “The last thing the British people want is this sort of dangerous, inflammatory language which threatens violence and intimidation on our streets” - but it did so 48 hours after the march took place, a move hardly considered to be meeting the moment.

“Day after day after day, Labour find themselves in the crouch position,” Lewis says.

This was proven when Lewis asked Peter Kyle, business and trade minister, to condemn Musk’s words at the rally on his LBC show, only to be told that Musk’s words were “so silly, I don’t even want to think about it,” by Kyle.

“They're so terrified of their own shadow, they're so terrified that they will be portrayed in the media as being somehow elitist or out of touch,” Lewis says, acknowledging that the government themselves are aware, and even scared of, how the Overton window has shifted.

“They should be out of touch with Tommy Robinson. I don't want them in line with Tommy Robinson,” he adds.

Labour’s neglect in taking on the issues only serves to benefit Nigel Farage, Emily Maitlis says.

“If you've got Tommy to your right and you've got Labour to your left, not really doing anything at all, then Farage starts looking like he's mainstream.”

There was one single political figure who unapologetically condemned Musk, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, who branded Musk a “coward” on his own social media platform.

But where were the Tories?

“A shiver should be going down the spine of every decent centre-right politician out there, that suddenly the people coming to define the right in this country are Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk,” Lewis says.

“Where's the fight back? Who's arguing against them?”

Kyle went on to say that the rally showed that the right to protest is alive and well in Britain, but had no words for the people who chose to march with Robinson, a figure that’s always been regarded as dangerous, racist and a threat to British values.

“I don't want to be judgmental about anybody who turned up to that rally. I do understand there are so many problems with this country. People feel desperate right now,” Lewis says.

“At the end of the day, we know who Tommy Robinson is. And I think if you're turning up to a Tommy Robinson rally, that's problematic.”

Money talks

The recent shift in the Overton window coincides, somewhat uncoincidentally, with another big political moment - Elon Musk buying Twitter.

Since the billionaire bought the social media platform in 2022, far-right voices have been allowed to post freely and aggressively, in the name of ‘free speech’, with rules and regulations on the app watered down to suit Musk’s personal political outlook.

“The Overton window doesn't move on its own. It moves with enormous money. It moves with enormous influence. It moves with billionaire investment like the kind that Elon Musk is giving,” Emily Maitlis says.

Far-right views have gotten louder and more frequent, with less regulation on platforms like X in place to keep them at bay, and what’s worse is they are often accompanied by misinformation that goes entirely unchecked but spreads and spreads.

Most recently, an AI image of a white woman crying, surrounded by Muslim men, has circulated on X.

“That image does not exist in real life. It has been created. Much of this stuff has been created. It has been fostered and pushed and backed by billionaire US financiers,” Emily says.

“So if you're wondering why the Overton window has shifted, that's why. People are coming to this because it has become much harder to escape. It is everywhere. It is amplified. It is louder and noisier and more prolific because it is being backed with billionaire money.”

What can be done?

What is an acceptable viewpoint in British politics has shifted, not just because of other political parties unwillingness to take on the fight against the hard right, but also because of the lack of ideas to counter them.

“It's the hard right and far right who are coming up with an explanation and analysis as to why the country is in a state – that's on the left, the centre and the centre right,” Lewis says.

“The fact that they haven't put up any other ideas is appalling.”

“The Overton window moves when there are no ideas to fight the ideas which are moving the window,” Lewis adds.

He believes the the centre, the liberal left and the centre-right, need to “get its act together” and start to seriously think about whether they've landed in a position where Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk are being allowed to project themselves as voice of the people of Britain.

“They are not and they will never be, unless decent political forces get out of the crouch position and actually take the fight to them,” he adds.

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.