Former British Army Major and conflict researcher Andrew Fox has warned that sectarian voting, poorly managed immigration and the growth of parallel communities are placing increasing pressure on Britain’s national cohesion.

Speaking to Visegrád24 founder Stefan Tompson in London, Fox argued that the Gaza war had transformed a previously localised political phenomenon into a national movement, with overseas religious and political grievances increasingly influencing parliamentary and municipal elections.

Fox served in the British Army for 16 years between 2005 and 2021, completing three combat tours in Afghanistan as well as operational deployments in Bosnia, Northern Ireland and the Middle East. He later taught War Studies and Behavioural Science at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

He now serves as a Senior Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, where he specialises in defence, the Middle East and the psychology of disinformation. His recent fieldwork has included visits to Gaza, Hezbollah tunnels in Lebanon and the front lines in Ukraine.

Gaza Transforms Local Politics

Fox pointed to the recent election of 574 candidates whom he described as holding sectarian-style positions. According to his assessment, these campaigns were driven primarily by international Muslim grievances rather than the responsibilities attached to the offices being contested.

The development is particularly striking at the municipal level because local councillors have no authority over foreign policy. Their responsibilities concern services such as rubbish collection, council tax and road maintenance, yet candidates are increasingly being elected on international issues.

According to Fox, sectarian voting existed before the current conflict in Gaza but was largely confined to particular neighbourhoods and constituencies. Gaza supplied the issue capable of turning geographically concentrated voting patterns into a wider national movement, he argued. It has become an important electoral concern even in local elections where candidates have no influence over British foreign policy.

Five independent MPs campaigning prominently on Gaza were elected at Britain’s last general election. Fox expects that number to rise at the next national vote as local voting blocs become more organised. He said he would be surprised if fewer than ten such MPs were returned. He pointed to Greater Manchester as an example, claiming that electoral results at ward level correspond closely with areas containing large ethnic-minority populations.

Tower Hamlets and Electoral Integrity

The interview also addressed allegations of electoral malpractice in communities where political influence is concentrated within families, religious institutions or tightly organised local networks.

Fox stressed that such accusations are difficult to prove and that criminal standards of evidence must be respected. Investigators face considerable obstacles when attempting to establish whether individuals completed their own ballots or were improperly influenced by relatives or community leaders. He cited Tower Hamlets, whose political history includes a former mayor being barred from holding electoral office following an election court judgment, as a prominent example of concerns surrounding local political machines.

Fox argued that voting patterns influenced heavily by particular ethnic communities are no longer confined to East London and are becoming visible elsewhere.

Britain’s Changing Cities

Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham and Derby were among the cities Fox identified as experiencing profound demographic change. He argued that many historically white working-class communities had undergone a form of white flight, as some longstanding residents moved away and were replaced by newer populations.

Fox attributed much of the resulting tension not simply to immigration itself, but to the speed of the transformation and the absence of democratic consent. In his view, voters were never properly consulted about changes that significantly altered the social character of their communities. This has created the impression, he argued, that politics is no longer something conducted on behalf of citizens but something imposed upon them.

Fox said he did not personally feel anger towards immigrants. Instead, he placed responsibility on successive governments that oversaw large-scale demographic change without sufficient accountability or preparation for its consequences. He also expressed concern for people who no longer felt at home in neighbourhoods where their families had lived for generations, as well as for Jewish communities facing intimidation over events in the Middle East.

Integration, Not Collective Punishment

Despite his criticism of immigration policy, Fox rejected sweeping proposals to remove millions of people from Britain. Instead, he called for a determined effort to rebuild a shared national identity and integrate communities into a common civic culture.

Britain must define what citizenship requires, he argued, and communicate those expectations both to children born in the country and to newcomers. His proposals included strengthening the criminal-justice system, increasing deterrence against intimidation and sectarian violence, limiting the development of parallel societies and applying stricter standards when granting citizenship. He also supported withdrawing citizenship from serious offenders where they possess another nationality and removal is legally available.

Fox nevertheless cautioned against treating every member of an immigrant or Muslim community as an extremist. He argued that policy should focus on the activists and political operators driving sectarianism rather than collectively blaming millions of law-abiding people.

The Red-Green Alliance

Fox also discussed what he described as the red-green alliance: a tactical coalition between sections of the radical left and political Islam.

On social issues, he observed, the two movements appear fundamentally incompatible. The progressive left campaigns for LGBT and transgender rights, while Islamist movements frequently support deeply socially conservative religious positions.

Fox characterised their cooperation as a temporary marriage of convenience. Both groups currently share an interest in dismantling the existing political and social order, even though they disagree sharply about what should replace it. In his assessment, the alliance can continue while both sides remain focused on opposing existing institutions. Serious conflict is likely to emerge only when they attempt to agree on a new political settlement.

Fox argued that many left-wing activists interpret politics through a simplified division between oppressors and oppressed. Muslim communities, immigrants and sexual minorities are consequently placed within the same political coalition despite holding sharply conflicting beliefs.

He cited activists displaying LGBT symbols alongside flags associated with the Iranian regime as an example of what he considered a failure to recognise these contradictions. At the parliamentary level, he noted that some MPs elected primarily on Gaza-related platforms have expressed positions on social questions that resemble traditional conservative politics more closely than those of the modern progressive left.

Britain Has Not Fallen

Fox rejected claims circulating on social media that Britain has already become an Islamic state or is beyond recovery.

Drawing on his research into political messaging and disinformation, he argued that dramatic online narratives often obscure a more complicated reality. Radical movements can attract support while remaining poorly understood, but frequently lose momentum once their leaders and policies receive sustained public scrutiny.

The more immediate threat, in his view, is not a national Islamist takeover but the creation of entrenched local political strongholds. Such concentrations of political and demographic power could produce increasingly segregated areas in which communities lead separate lives and pursue different political priorities.

Britain still has time to respond, Fox concluded, but it must control immigration, strengthen integration and establish a shared understanding of citizenship before sectarian divisions become permanent. He did not expect modern British identity to resemble that of the wartime generation. Nevertheless, he argued that the country still needs a recognisable civic culture, a common language and basic expectations shared across political, religious and ethnic lines.

Without that common foundation, Britain will struggle to maintain social cohesion, economic success or a clear sense of national purpose. Fox’s conclusion was that Britain has not fallen, but it must act now if it wants to prevent today’s divisions from becoming permanent.