We enter 2025 amid a flurry of right-wing noise. A public spat rages through the news between billionaire Elon Musk and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with rumours the tech entrepreneur could make a large donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the removal of moderators on Facebook and Instagram in a rush to champion “speech” over facts. Donald Trump’s inauguration approaches. It’s not exactly the relaxing start to the year we’d hoped for.
Perhaps the most absurd new development is the announcement that Andrew Tate, the far-right influencer currently facing criminal charges of rape and human trafficking in Romania (which he denies), appears to have launched a political party. “BRUV,” which stands for Britain Restoring Underlying Values, proposes to cap “non-British residents at 10% of the population, return to “traditional family values,” and restore “masculinity and strength,” alongside other AI-image illustrated policies. The X account, which was briefly suspended, already has over 100,000 followers.
The Bruv Party videos are farcical – the policies are even more absurd. Not to mention that there won’t be another election until 2029. But it’s not that Tate exists as a genuine political figure who could enter mainstream politics or, as he predicts, become Prime Minister. It is that, while the ideas in the “manosphere” traditionally exist in digital spaces such as YouTube videos, podcasts or social media, they inch their way to legitimacy by entering politics. Tate’s danger lies in his ability to present far-right, misogynistic views alongside genuinely relatable lifestyle advice. What happens when this spills into the political sphere?
It’s easy to fearmonger about the rise of the right, or young men supporting right-wing views, but is there evidence for that? Data following the UK election did show a worrying trend. In the UK, men aged between 18 and 24 were twice as likely as women to vote for Reform UK (albeit, still only 12%), a party which stood on an anti-immigration and low-tax platform. According to a report last year from advocacy group HOPE not hate, only 45% of young men think that feminism is still important because women remain disadvantaged in society, compared to 78% of young women.
I spoke to Anki Deo, senior policy officer at HOPE not hate, who told me men’s and women’s views are diverging further and further: “There definitely is a much larger proportion of young men compared to young women who hold reactionary views. Women are broadly more left-wing or more tolerant, and young men are more reactionary.”
It’s a trend repeating across Europe and in the US. Trump campaigned within and to the manosphere: speaking on the Joe Rogan Podcast (with an estimated 81% male audience), Barstool Sports’ podcast “Bussin with the Boys,” “Impaulsive” with Logan Paul and amplifying a hyper-masculine ideology that thrives online. It wasn’t the only reason Trump won – but it helped a turnout of young white men (63%, in fact) to vote Republican.
Should women be nervous about this subset of men happy to support right-wing parties and right-wing views? It is unlikely we will see Nigel Farage leading the UK after the country conclusively rejected a Conservative party that had lurched further to the right. But the problem lies in shifting the Overton window – the range of policies and ideas the public believes are reasonable. As Reform grows, if Tate gains legitimacy, if voters feel at risk of jumping to fringe, right-wing groups, Labour may feel obliged to shift in response. Progressive policies that seemed reasonable, suddenly become harder to implement.
But it’s not clear how much a vocal, male, right-wing contingent will translate at the ballot box. This will be tested at the local elections, set to take place in May this year. “For better or worse, young men are very unlikely to be registered to vote and to vote in an election,” says Deo. “They’re also incredibly politically disillusioned. It is not super clear that all of these young people will bother going to vote for Reform.”
Even if Reform is a flash in the pan, and Tate’s “party” a publicity stunt, people’s political views trickle into their everyday lives. There has been a worrying rise in sexual assaults in schools, by children to other children, with warnings that toxic, online culture is to blame. What about the friends and family of these young men, radicalised by the sexist, hateful nonsense promoted by Tate?
Tate’s BRUV party might be a joke – a hubristic move from a glorified YouTuber facing prison time. But the creeping rise of fringe figures galvanising young men into misogynistic views calls for a social reckoning with the influence of online spaces – even if Tate has no chance of becoming Prime Minister.
