DAVID Lammy was right to call out the far-right so vociferously on Andrew Marr’s show at the weekend.

The Labour MP for Tottenham has shown great courage in speaking out so strongly. As a minority ethnic MP, he is no stranger to the armchair warriors of the internet, who threaten death and harm to him and his loved ones every time he takes a stand. And he’s used to batting back accusations from the smooth-talking, silver-spooned European Research Group, or other right-wing politicians who seek to normalise or underplay their inflammatory rhetoric and sneaky courting of extremism.

It was a welcome change to hear a Westminster politician, on mainstream TV, condemn the many other MPs who hide behind the respectability veneer of Parliament. For Lammy, ignoring the insidious rise of racism and religious bigotry both in politics and our wider culture is not an option. Andrew Marr looked totally out of his depth with his lame response to Lammy’s principled stance and his admirable refusal to back down.

Of course, the BBC’s track record of courting these extremist politicians and their constant booking of them for current affairs discussions is part of the problem. Larger-than-life characters such as Jacob Rees-Mogg secure disproportionate airtime to plant their seeds of discord. And they seem to be able to create a lot of distance when this discord produces nasty results. Rees-Mogg’s “apology” for his endorsement of the far-right and Islamophobic German party, the AfD, comes too little, and far too late, in an already inflamed scenario.

In the ugly aftermath of his interview, with tabloid outrage and patronising put-downs from those he rightly named and shamed, Lammy has chosen to rise above criticisms or accusations of exaggeration in highlighting this growing concern. Instead, he is appealing to everyone, across traditional divides, to unite in our rejection of this frightening extremism. He also has support from some unlikely corners of traditionally opposing camps.

Recently, on Channel 4 news, Michael Heseltine, former Tory deputy prime minister and ardent Remainer, drew parallels between the rise in fascism in 1930s Germany and present-day politics, both in Britain and across Europe. He pointed out that the extremes of the 1930s were driven by economics, a debilitating recession and the widening gap between the haves and the have nots, which is a similar scenario to the issues we currently face. Heseltine has not faced the same backlash as Lammy for pointing out this link.

Unfortunately, this Grand Canyon of inequality has been filled with a search for scapegoats and for unrealistic alternatives to the status quo, with unsavoury political parties jumping into the mix, determined to harness discontent and marginalisation. Into this widening chasm has stepped arch manipulator Nigel Farage, with his ironically styled anti-elite Brexit Party carrying support from the very centre of the establishment, in the form of Annunziata Rees-Mogg.The clue is in the name, readers.

In a typically brass-necked manoeuvre, Farage claims moderation for his extremist views by contrasting his vile prejudice with the rough types remaining in Ukip. Even the appalling Gerard Batten still seems to be able to muster up support, regardless of their total absence in Westminster and rapidly shrinking presence in Brussels.

Farage and Batten have lowered the tone to such an extent that it is now almost acceptable to say things out loud that were previously unspeakable. Batten’s defence of his colleague’s hateful and aggressive online trolling on rape as “satire” has got to be one of the lowest points in an already bottomless pit of disgusting and abusive commentary. And dangerous, too.

This danger, this lack of responsibility and accountability from the likes of Farage and Batten, is echoed at Westminster. At the very heart of government, it is the hard right who are currently most likely to take over from Theresa May when she finally hands in her red box and leaves Number 10. Boris Johnson wears his careerism and political opportunism on his sleeve, shrugging off criticism for racial and bigoted incitement with Latin comebacks and accusations of the PC brigade gone mad. The decline of Boris did not start with his schoolboy classics. Meanwhile, radiating earnest respectability on the outside, but Lord knows what demons on the inside, the curious Michael Gove lurks in the shadows, waiting for his moment to steal the limelight as Mr Reasonable to The Johnson Joker.

This bunch of chancers have done much to damage the UK and will surely wreak further havoc should Johnson or Gove or Rees-Mogg make it through the door of No 10 while Farage sets the agenda from offstage-right. There’s nothing mainstream about these people. There’s nothing normal about talking of putting the “fear of God” into MPs, of sharing a platform with agitators like Le Pen, or cavorting with far-right populist Steve Bannon for afternoon tea.

It’s all one big gamble for them – if it pays off, will make them infinitely more powerful and wealthy than they already are, to the detriment of just about everyone else.

They pick on minorities because it’s an easy way to get certain sections of the population onside. To get people to wake up and notice them, to get broadcasters to book them, they keep upping the bigotry ante. It’s all just a means to an end. An end where, tragically and ironically, only their exclusive set, the fat cats and the grossly rich, can swell their coffers further. Who needs a Brexit plan for the country when the plan was always something far more individualistic and selfish? They’ll be laughing all the way to their offshore asset bank.

I am a woman of colour – the only one ever elected to any parliament from Scotland, a national shame in itself. I’ve written many times about the abhorrent abuse I received while I was an SNP MP and since then because of my involvement in the party, I still fear for my family’s safety. We will always be a target as long as the growing global Islamophobia goes unchallenged. First, they come for us, but who knows who’s next? Because, beyond my faith, I am also targeted because I am a woman, a female politician who has had the audacity to speak up for equal rights. So long as these great beasts of bigotry go unchallenged and are licensed from above, they shall always search out fresh meat for their hate.

So I stand with Lammy and against the faux outrage of the new right. We must all unite to reject this normalisation of hate by the establishment and resist these pinstriped boot boys with all our collective might.