Mainstream UK
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Mainstream UK is a self-styled “anti-extremism” and pro-“civility” group which was founded in 2019 and was spending thousands of pounds running anti-Labour attack adverts on Facebook focusing on the party’s tax and nationalisation policies.
Mainstream UK describes itself as “a new campaign designed to encourage a return to respectable and responsible politics, and to banish extremism from British politics once and for all”.
Membership
The Chair of Mainstream UK is former Labour MP Lord Ian Austin and its members include Lord Eric Pickles, Rachel Riley, Sir Norman Lamb, Maureen Lipman, Rabbi Jonathan Hughes, Michael McCann, Ivan Lewis, Mike Gapes, Ann Coffey and Joan Ryan.
Attack adverts
One advert features a clip from a video of actress Maureen Lipman, a supporter of Mainstream UK. The 10-second video simply says:
- “This lot’s not Labour, they’re extremists. If he could nationalise daffodils he would.”[1]
Another advert, which is currently marked inactive and not being shown to users, features a longer two-minute clip from the same video and makes reference to antisemitism in the Labour Party, as well as “the throwing around of millions of pounds” by the party in spending pledges.[2]
Anti-Corbyn
On 8 April 2022, Operation Cupcake tweeted:
"An anti-Corbyn group fronted by Sir Keir Starmer's LFI agent, Lord Ian Austin, backed by Lord Eric Pickles and Rachel Riley, hired Tory PR firm Public First and spent more than £134,000. Mainstream UK did not return any spending declaration at all. #StarmerOut"[3]
