Farage adviser said UK would be better off if it had not fought Nazi Germany

Exclusive: Jack Anderton says UK may ‘regain’ former colonies in future and suggests end to support for Ukraine

An adviser used by Nigel Farage and others in Reform UK to boost their social media popularity has suggested that Britain would be better off had it stayed neutral in the second world war instead of fighting Nazi Germany.

Jack Anderton, who ran Farage’s hugely successful TikTok account before helping Luke Campbell become the Reform mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire, also said the UK should not support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.

In a post on his personal blog about Britain’s international standing, Anderton said that in a future world of “meritocracy”, the UK could “regain” former colonies such as Australia, Canada and South Africa.

He added that the UK should copy the policy of mass incarceration carried out by El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, widely condemned as an abuse of human rights.

Anderton has never been employed by Reform but the 23-year-old established Farage on TikTok, where he now has 1.3m followers, before working closely on Campbell’s election campaign.

He remains a central part of Campbell’s circle, and the mayor is known to have made efforts to get him on to his roster of staff, which have been thwarted because he cannot have political appointees.

Anderton’s personal blog, titled Britain Needs Change, includes an entry from last year about what he called “a self-interested British foreign policy”, arguing that the only conflict in the last century that was in the UK’s interest was the Falklands war.

“Trillions of pounds of British taxes have been spent in foreign lands in the pursuit of ‘democracy’, ‘human rights’ and ‘doing what is right’,” the post said. “More than a million British lives have been lost since WW1 in wars and battles that have never once been fought by British men, on this island.”

Fighting in both the world wars ensured the UK was no longer a great power, he wrote: “We impoverished ourselves for decades, we didn’t finish paying the loans off to America until 2006. Our economy stagnated, we lost an empire, and we are pushed around by America. And Germany, a country we beat, has been richer than us since the 1970s.

“Alternative history is interesting; if Britain had not fought in WW1 and WW2, it would not have had to rely on America for economic support, and it would have had the independence to act accordingly. Britain could have developed India, Cyprus, Fiji, Malta, Saint Lucia, Seychelles, the Bahamas, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Ireland and New Zealand. In the coming meritocracy, perhaps Britain could regain some of these nations.”

The same post also argues against providing support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion: “We are sending billions of pounds (that we cannot afford) to prop up a country that we have no allegiance to. Russia is not our enemy, they have not attacked Britain.”

Anderton calls for a shake-up of the Foreign Office so that all decisions are made purely on the basis of whether or not they benefit Britain: “Instead, what we have are people who should be working for the UN or a charity rather than working in the British Foreign Office.”

In another post from 2024, on crime, Anderton enthusiastically endorses the policies of Nayib Bukele, who has dramatically cut gang violence and wider crime through mass detentions that have put 2% of El Salvador’s population in prison.

“Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures,” he wrote. “I’d even argue the measures aren’t that extraordinary and should be in place in times of normalcy.

“El Salvador is perhaps a lesson for those in Britain who wish to take back control of their country. Power works, and it is all that matters. State power when used effectively is basically omnipotent. The meritocracy will be established, criminals and corrupt officials will be jailed, immigration will drop to zero, houses will be built, and our citizens will once again feel proud of the country they call home.”

Anderton was contacted for comment. Campbell’s office referred the matter to Reform UK, who said Anderton was not employed by either the party or the mayor.

If this is the standard for UK politicians we’ve literally scraped the bottom of the barrel 

I suppose you could argue that the Empire would have continued had we not gotten involved.

That being said, what would Europe have looked like if we had let the Nazis do whatever they wanted? We would have had to intervene at some point, war was inevitable.

For better or worse we ended up doing the right thing in my opinion.

Reform voters: ‘I was already voting for them, you don’t have to sell them to me anymore’

To those of us who lost relatives, parents, grandparents fighting fascism In the 40s this is hugely disrespectful, can we strip him of his citizenship and tell him to fuck off now?

The obnoxious little right-wing brat notwithstanding, I’d be *slightly* interested in an actual historian’s take on the counterfactual history had Britain remained neutral in WW2, and whether that would have been a credible option even if motivated purely by self-interest. Obviously, the moral argument for democracies to fight the literal Nazis is as clear cut as you could hope for.

Genuine question, what does he think the Nazis would have done once they’d finished conquering the continent? Or is he suggesting that we should have been on their side?

I am both confused, and rather miffed by this little scrote.

Looks like if/when the Reform take power, the UK will get to see how good their checks and balances are at holding politicians from making a ton for illegal changes.

I fear it may be similar to the US where the rules are only good on paper if you get enough loyalists in important positions.

We could have been.

Nazis could have won the war, toppled our government and carried on with what they were doing.

A rebel group or an uprising could have happened, defeated the Nazis and created a new government, which could have led to a better outcome of life right now.

Or, it could have gone completely horrible…

Hindsight is a beautiful thing.

“Advisor”

The boy set up aTikTok account and advertised it on Facebook where all the old people hang out. 

I don’t know what’s worse. The comments or the fact that a man who claims to want to be the next Prime Minister is taking advice from school kids.

I know it’s a trend and I’m just being old but I’m really not into the shaved sideburn bowl cut look. The hair looks like a hat.

The far-right does this because it feeds into their story that Britain was once “great” and only lost that greatness by making the wrong choices. By twisting history, saying it would’ve been better not to fight Nazi Germany or by glorifying the empire, they create a simple narrative of decline and betrayal. It’s not really about facts, it’s about stoking resentment and offering people a false sense of pride and strength in the past.