The Far-Right ‘Brain Rot’ Radicalising the British Press

Elon Musk's X is pushing politicians and journalists in Westminster into an increasingly dark place

It’s not just British politicians who are being radicalised by the rise of the online far-right, but journalists too.

Yesterday the Daily Express’ ‘Senior Political Correspondent’ Christian Calgie shared a Tweet calling for the deportation of the British Muslim MP Zarah Sultana.

After posting on X that he “cannot wait until my taxes no longer fund Zarah’s salary”, Calgie received a reply from one of the many far-right accounts that now dominate the platform, saying that they “cannot wait until my taxes fund deporting Zarahs”, to which Calgie replied “even better”.

This tweet, which called for the deportation of a British-born politician, on the apparent basis of either her race, religion, political beliefs (or all three) led to condemnation from a number of senior politicians, including the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.

Yet rather than immediately apologise, Calgie instead responded with a further mocking Tweet declaring his support for Phillipson’s Deputy Labour leadership rival Lucy Powell.

All of these Tweets then received large levels of support from X’s increasingly far-right user base.