Episode Details

Pauline Hanson sat down with Tommy Robinson, one of Britain's most notorious far-right figures. So why did the interview happen, and what does it say about the rise of right-wing populism globally? 

From Luton to Moscow, the money behind the far right has gone global. Journalist Daniel Trilling traces cash flowing from the United States and Canada to fund Islamophobic activists in the United Kingdom, Russia's long-running interest in stirring British politics, and Elon Musk using X to play kingmaker: backing Nigel Farage, cooling on him, then boosting Robinson and another breakaway rival. 

And Robinson himself has been courted by Israel and photographed in Moscow alongside Errol Musk. So how connected are far-right movements around the world? 

Trilling argues these movements, supercharged by a fragmented media landscape and the failures of neoliberalism, share a style and a pool of funders but are not formally coordinated.

He also explains to hosts Latika Bourke and Kylie Morris why the political centre keeps ceding ground on immigration, why Reform UK is suddenly in real trouble, and what can eventually make these movements come unstuck.

Guest: Daniel Trilling, journalist and author of If We Tolerate This: How the British Establishment Made the Far Right Respectable.

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