What is “The Movement Forward”? The tactical voting alliance with Carol Vorderman and Femi
An introductory article
Today I wanted to do an introductory article to “The Movement Forward” (MVTFWD), a group that’s been busy trying to meddle in our democracy.
Some of you may have already know a bit about MVTFWD, which I first touched upon in December last year:
But I thought it worth recapping, not least because I have much more information since then. Today I will spell out some of my new discoveries.
Most people will have never heard of MVTFWD, but they may know of its supporters. Perhaps the most famous is Carol Vorderman, who was literally the poster girl for the movement…
… and has plugged “coordinated anti-Tory tactical voting” on TV:
Other members of MVTFWD include:
Femi Oluwole, the pro-EU campaigner who has been funded by Best for Britain (which is funded by George Soros)
Liz Webster, who works for “Save British Food” - whose partner is The European Movement (which is also funded by Soros)
Jemma Forte and Marina Purkiss (who present The Trawl, run by Global, and have presented on Byline TV. To add, Vorderman has presented for Byline TV and LBC, which is run by Global).
India Willoughby
Patsy Stevenson
Sean Adams
Peter Stefanovic
Emma Kennedy
Tan Smith (known on X as “Supertanskiii”)
Josh Russell
Mick Hucknall
It’s not obvious whether Narinder Kaur is a member but she certainly supports the cause…
… and attended MVTFWD’s Christmas gathering last year:
To the outside observer, MVTFWD may look like a group of political-influencer buddies who all share the same views. But it’s actually a very well organised outfit.
It was registered on The Electoral Commission in June last year, where it was given two campaigning names: “Movement Forward” and “Swap My Vote”…
… whose inspiration appears to come from a US movement:
MVTFWD was registered on the Electoral Commission by “Mr Thomas de Grunwald”, a campaigner with connections to The Good Law Project…
… which Vorderman has campaigned for before:
Saying that, another man called Josh Russell does a lot of MVTFWD’s coordination, as you can see below - where I’ve shared examples of the group’s activities on Discord (a community-building app):
Discord allows MVTFWD to share templates of things to post on social media...
… and for Russell to outline MVTFWD’s wider strategy (“plans to dominate the narrative, work with content creators”)...
… among other activities:
You have to hand it to these guys, they make the Right look like headless chickens.
Josh Russell (who I mention above) is acknowledged in Carol Vorderman’s recently-published book Now What?, where she writes “‘Stop the Tories’ was our first adventure, I’m sure we will have many more.”
Case in point: this year Vorderman promoted a repurposed version of MVTFWD’s “Stop the Tories” campaign - now titled “Stop Reform”:
It definitely won’t be hard to organise “many more” adventures with Josh Russell, as he has a history of setting up and dissolving companies:
It’s worth mentioning that when Vorderman first became political, she was lauded for having a “later-life renaissance” by The Guardian, which said she was “evidently experiencing something of a personal liberation.”
Whatever Vorderman’s motivations, her involvement in MVTFWD casts doubt on her being a solo activist:
