On 7th November, the University of York’s Reform Society invited Jack Anderton to speak on campus, as part of his nationwide university tour. He is the second controversial speaker since the Society’s inception; his talk stirred a protest amongst some University students. In response to his reception, he agreed to speak to student media.
Jack Anderton is the rising 24-year-old star of the Reform UK Party. During his management of Nigel Farage’s TikTok, the politician gained 1.3 million followers. He is proud of working for “the party that is currently leading in the British opinion polls”.
He claims that “for the last 30 years, Britain has been on a downward spiral; Reform represents a renewal of our country”. According to the ONS, GDP, even when controlled for inflation, has been rising steadily for the last thirty years — with an exception during the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, there are many who don’t share his optimistic views on Reform UK. York Student Action Network, who organised the protest outside the Law and Management Building, accused Jack of holding controversial beliefs. This comes after he was quoted saying Britain shouldn’t have fought in WWII and that “WWI was an awful waste of life”, on his blog. He continued to argue that the UK should not be supporting Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. When questioned about his comments, he explained that he meant it on a purely economic basis: “What I said about World War I and World War II, is that economically Britain was worse off, which is a factual statement. We didn’t finish paying off the loans until about 2007. So that is what I was referring to.” In his blog, he complains about how fighting WWII caused Britain to lose former colonies. He suggests “In the coming Meritocracy, perhaps Britain could regain some of these nations”.
When further questioned about his right-wing opinions he claimed he was “not anti-immigrant [but instead] anti-immigration system”. According to his blog, his idea of an effective system is to “leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) [and] repeal the Human Rights Act”.
Even during our interview, he made it very clear that he believes that deporting immigrants is the key to a better Britain. He said: “The mass immigration that we’ve experienced over the last couple of decades has harmed the economy, and it has specifically harmed younger people”.
When asked to elaborate, he continued: “Last year, there were about a million people that were allowed into Britain. Yet only about 220,000 homes were built. So, that’s partly contributing to the reason why young people are paying so much for rent or why they can’t get on the housing ladder.”
Whilst net migration, according to the Migration Observatory, was in reality 431,000, Labour has indeed come under fire for their failure to meet housing targets.
When asked about his opinions on the protests, he said he “would have very happily spoken to them [the protesters] but was advised against it, by the University’s and his security teams.”
Ultimately, he thinks his talk (which he estimated had around 30 attendees), was successful in having a conversation about making Britain “prosperous, wealthy, and happy again”.
This will all be done, he believes, through a more powerful state. “State power when used effectively is basically omnipotent,” he argues on his blog.
It will be interesting to see if he continues to face protests at the other universities on his tour.
Lots of students are voting reform, myself included. But many are silenced for fear of backlash. Not everyone voting reform is racist. Of course woke york students with nothing else to do will protest.